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The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has revealed that only 16 states have so far accessed the 2023 matching grant, representing 41 percent of the appropriated N51.6 billion.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hamid Bobboyi, made this known during an oversight visit of the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services to the commission in Abuja, yesterday.
He said out of the N51.6 billion appropriated for matching grants in 2023, only N21 billion was accessed by the 16 states as of June 30.
The 16 states are Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa Niger, Ondo, Osun, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara.
“Out of N103.2 billion appropriated amount for 2023, being two percent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), N55 billion was utilised. This is total expenditure under the UBE implementation, matching grant, educational imbalance, special education and monitoring and programmes funds as of June 30, 2024; thus, showing 54 percent utilisation. For the 2023 matching grant disbursement status, N21 billion was accessed by 16 states out of N51.6 billion appropriated, representing 41 percent as of June 30,” he said.
Also speaking, the chairman of the committee, Mark Usani, said the oversight function was necessary to see how basic education has fared in the last one year.
He said the committee needs to know the areas of interventions the commission would be required to enhance quality basic education in the country.
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“In our drive towards ensuring that every Nigerian child is back to school and able to learn, we have had high expectations from the UBEC over the years. If the Federal Government has not established the UBEC, you can only imagine what will become of basic education in the country.”
Usani, however, said the committee would review the UBEC Act so that basic education challenges and unaccessed funds would be addressed.
“The issue of unaccessed funds is something we are taking steps to make sure we overcome it, and I want to assure you that by the time the process of amending the UBEC Act comes on, we will definitely achieve the challenge of unaccessed funds.
“The challenge of unavailability of teachers also is beyond what we can achieve at this level. UBEC does not recruit teachers for the LEA, it is the responsibility of states and local governments.
“What UBEC does is intervene to check the quality of teachers and make them up to date. We are going to engage state actors to make sure that we call attention to these serious problems.
“Nigerians know that this intervention agency must play a pivotal role in the education of our children, and everybody needs to know how far you fared. What are the challenges you are having, we need to ensure you do what you are meant to do. We must work very hard to change the tide of basic education,” he said.
