States fail to access huge UBEC funds

That is despite federal efforts to assist states fast-track the development of basic education, UBEC acting executive secretary, Prof Charles Onocha, told members of the House of Representatives committee on education on oversight visit last week.He said up till last week, a total N43.5 billion matching grant provided by federal government has not been accessed […]

That is despite federal efforts to assist states fast-track the development of basic education, UBEC acting executive secretary, Prof Charles Onocha, told members of the House of Representatives committee on education on oversight visit last week.
He said up till last week, a total N43.5 billion matching grant provided by federal government has not been accessed by states to implement UBE, and only five states-Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara-have accessed their 2013 grants on provision of counterpart fund in line with the law establishing the commission.
He particularly expressed concern that Ebonyi State, for instance, has not accessed the fund since 2010, when the general outcry has been lack of adequate funding to education in Nigeria.   
The commission has so far received N423.4 billion in statutory transfers, of the 2% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund as approved in UBEC Act 2004, for disbursement to state governments.
Last year, it got N8.84 billion for educational imbalance project to address challenges of almajiri, girl child and boy child education.
According to him, 20% of the fund, representing N1.77 billion, was allocated to address the issue of almajiri phenomenon in the north. While  girl-child education took 10%, boy-child projects got 70% of the funds-about N6.19 billion.
From 2009 till date, UBEC spent N89.6 billion in purchase of instructional materials and library resource under a direct intervention.
He told the committee that the various interventions have significantly pushed up school enrolment, but efforts were on to deal with a problem of 10.5 million children out of school.
Chairman of the committee, Aminu Suleiman, urged the commission to tract the use of funds by state governments in order to achieve value for money and ensure funds are not diverted.