The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has said the sum of N135,540,905,308.92 billion in matching grants has not been accessed by states between 2020 and 2024.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, disclosed this during his presentation of the 2023 and 2024 budget implementation report to the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education on Monday in Abuja.
Bobboyi clarified that the current year’s budget (2024) would be disbursed in the following year, which means that the allocated funds did not usually lapse, unlike funds allocated to other organisations.
He, however, expressed concern that many states had failed to meet the necessary conditions to access the funds, leaving much-needed resources untapped for educational development.
He pointed out that despite some progress, nine states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had not accessed the 2023 UBE matching grant.
“In terms of regional performance, the North-West Zone has performed the best, achieving 100 percent access to the UBE matching grant, while the South-South Zone has accessed 97.92 percent of its allocated funds,” he added.
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 despite the multifaceted challenges bedevilling 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 states that had so far accessed the 2024 first and second quarters 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 the 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.
Speaking on performances of the states based on geo-political zones as of Oct. 31, 2024, in accessing the UBE matching grant, Bobboyi commended the North West Zone for 100 percent performance.
The UBEC boss also ranked the South-South Zone in second place with 97.92 percent accessed grants, the North-Central Zone in third place with 97.76 percent accessed grants, and the North-East Zone in fourth place with 97.57 percent accessed grants.
He ranked South-West Zone in the fifth position with 92.28 percent and South-East Zone in the sixth position with 85.37 percent accessed grants.
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 the low level of budgetary allocation to basic education at state and local government levels and low teacher quality.
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