N135bn UBE matching grants un-accessed by 35 states — UBEC boss

The Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, has disclosed that a whopping sum of N135,540,905,308.92 billion in matching grants for the implementation of Universal Basic Education has been accessed by 34 states and Federal Capital Territory between 2020 and 2024.

Bobboyi made this known on Monday while presenting his 2023 and 2024 budget implementation report to the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education on oversight visit to the Commission.

This is as the Senate Committee led by its Chairman, Senator Lawal Adams Usman, equally expressed concerns about state governors not accessing the UBE matching grants in spite of the multifaceted challenges bedeviling basic in the country including school children learning under trees in some states.

The committee also called on the Federal Government to ensure the reintroduction of History as a subject in schools.

Bobboyi, however, explained to the lawmakers that the figure was high and might come down because full disbursement of the 2024 budget cycle would commence in January 2025.

According to him, only Katsina and Kaduna states were the two states that had so far accessed 2024 first and second quarter of their matching grant after paying their counterpart fund.

He added that some other states have commenced the process of accessing their grants, expressing optimism that more states would access their funds before the end of year.

Bobboyi noted that many states could not access the fund because of failure to meet the necessary conditions to access the fund, leaving much-needed resources untapped for educational development.

While giving further details, he said: “For the 2020 UBE matching grant, 34 states and FCT have accessed 2020 matching grant, two states —Abia and Ogun have not accessed it.

“For 2021 matching grant, 33 states and FCT have accessed while Abia, Imo and Ogun have not accessed the 2021 matching grant.

“In 2022, 29 States and FCT have accessed while Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun and Oyo have not accessed the grant. For 2023, 25 States have accessed the first to fourth quarter matching grant,” he said.

Bobboyi added that N263,043,551,250.30 and ₦103,288,086,976.00 being 2 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), were allocated to the Commission under the 2024 and 2023 Appropriation Acts.

He said that N103,288,086,976.00 was released for 2023 utilisation, representing 100 per cent release for the 12 months while 219,202,959,370.00 was released for 2024, representing 83.33 per cent release for 10 months.

Speaking on performances of the states based on geo-political zones as at Oct. 31, 2024 in accessing the UBE matching grant, Bobboyi commended the North West Zone for 100 per cent performance.

The UBEC boss also ranked the South–South Zone as second position with 97.92 per cent accessed grant, North-Central Zone in the third place with 97.76 accessed grant and North–East Zone as fourth position with 97.57 per cent accessed grant.

He ranked South–West Zone in the fifth position with 92.28 per cent and South–East Zone in the sixth position with 85.37 per cent accessed grant.

Highlighting the challenges of the commission, Bobboyi explained the lack of political will and commitment by some state governments on basic education issues as a major challenge.

Other challenges he said were low level of budgetary allocation to basic education at states and local government levels and low teacher quality.

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Others he said was the non-compliance with federal government’s directive on the teaching of history in basic school and high number of out-of-school children, among others.

The senator representing Anambra State, Sen. Victor Umeh, in his comments, decried the higher number of out-of-school children in the northern part of the country, in spite of the fact that the states show more commitment to timely access of the intervention fund in addition huge allocations from the Federation.

Also, Sen. Sunday Katung, representing Kaduna South, said that the stoppage of history in the basic education is damaging to the younger generation, hence the need to revisit the policy.

Katung said necessary action should be taken to bring back the teaching of history into the basic education as soon as possible.

The lawmakers also urged UBEC management to ensure strict monitoring and supervision of building projects to forestall rampant cases of collapsed building in many parts of the country.

Earlier, Chairman of the committee, Sen. Lawal Usman, stressed the importance of basic education for the development and future of the nation.

He said the committee, which has primary oversight function over basic secondary education, visited the Commission in compliance with Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The visit aimed to assess the level of compliance with the full implementation of the 2023/24 budget, identify inefficiencies, waste, and challenges, and make recommendations for improvements.

Senator Usman further explained that the committee would also tour some physical intervention projects, such as the UBEC ICT Centre and Smart Schools within the FCT, to gain a better understanding of the impact of the grants.

While commending the Commission for its work so far, he urged UBEC to do more, especially considering the outdated nature and challenges of its enabling law, which is currently being reviewed by the National Assembly.

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