The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says N41.06 billion matching grant in its coffers has remained un-accessed by the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory as of 8 March 2021.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, made this known during an oversight visit to the Commission by the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education on Thursday in Abuja.
He said about N143 billion matching grant was accessed by states and FCT from 2017 to 2020, out of the N184.8 billion that was made available by the Commission.
While no state has accessed the 2020 matching grant, however Bobboyi said only Ogun State was yet to access its 2018 allocations while 10 states have not also taken delivery of their 2019 grants as of 8 March 2020.
He listed the states to include Kebbi, Niger, Ogun, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Edo, Abia, and Lagos but added that Abia, Lagos, and Kebbi had in a few days lodged their payments.
Bobboyi, who lamented the several challenges bedeviling the basic education sector, said UBEC was appropriated 29.7 billion in the 2020 budget for capital projects with N1.3 billion for Federal Teacher Scheme; Constituency Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIP) – N2.8 billion and Constituency projects (Capital) – N25. 6 billion.
He, however, said the only N29. 75 billion (99.2percent) was released to the Commission as of December 2020.
Bobboyi said with the capital releases, the Commission awarded contracts to the tune of N27.5 billion for 2,895 constituency projects across the country, adding that 939 of such projects have been completed while 1,956 are ongoing.
He said the projects cut across classroom construction, classroom renovation, and supplies of education items.
The UBEC boss said, “30 states and FCT have implemented 2018 (matching grant projects), six states namely; Anambra, Imo, Kaduna, Kwara, Ogun, and Plateau are yet to implement, eight states have implemented 2019 matching grants projects, 28 states and FCT are yet to implement. In 2020, no state implemented the matching grants projects.”
Recall that in February 2021, the UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, disclosed that the un-accessed Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) matching grants to state governments stand at N73 billion.
Kwara state alone has over N7 billion, has been unable to access the fund from 2014 to 2019.
