June 22, 2022

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said it disbursed N533.7billion to the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory between 2005 and 2021 for basic education.

This is contained in a statement by UBEC Head of Public Relations, Mr. David Apeh on Tuesday in Abuja.

Reacting to insinuations that 110 billion Naira accessed by states as intervention funds has not been utilised, the commission said N30.8bn was not accessed as of June 6, 2022.

The commission noted that only 17 states had accessed up to the fourth quarter of 2021.

The states, the commission said are Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Nasarawa, Osun, Taraba and Zamfara.

While all states and the FCT have accessed 2005 to 2017 matching grant, the commission said Anambra, Imo, and Ogun had not accessed any quarter in 2019 matching grant.

The commission noted that the information, which appeared on a national daily of June 12, was a misrepresentation of comments made by the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi during a briefing on the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA).

The commission said the executive secretary has put measures in place to drastically reduce the level of un-accessed funds through stakeholders’ engagement and ensuring transparent management of the funds.

It added that the 50 per cent counterpart fund, which is one of the requirements for accessing the matching grant is a law as contained in the UBEC Establishment Act. (NAN)