Thirty-six states and the
Federal Capital Territory are yet to access the ₦46.2 billion Universal Basic Education
Commission (UBEC) matching grants for 2017 because of their inability to show
evidence of proper utilization of the grants disbursed to them earlier, Daily
Trust investigations have shown.
Daily
Trust report continues:
Official
documents analysed by this newspaper show that ₦46.2 billion was allocated to
the states and the FCT as UBEC grant this year, with each of them entitled to ₦1.25
billion.
Between
2005 and 2016, ₦344.8 billion was released as matching grant to states, but
only ₦282 billion was accessed by them within the period.
Matching
grant is a fund contributed by both the federal and state governments on equal
basis. It is currently 50 percent of the two per cent Consolidated
Revenue Fund (CRF).
State
wishing to access the federal government’s UBE Intervention fund must, among
other things, show evidence of the proper utilization of previously disbursed
UBE funds, and replicate the UBE act at the state level.
Other
conditions include the setting up of a state universal basic education board,
provide matching grants to federal government’s intervention funds, draw up
state UBE action plans and establish adequate mechanisms for programme
implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The
UBEC funds projects are usually executed a year behind, for instance, the 2017
funds are projects to be marked 2016, Daily Trust learnt.
The
UBEC figures
Analysis
of the data shows that in 2005/06, ₦38.35bn was allocated to the states; ₦55.51bn
(2007/08), ₦42.69bn (2009/10), ₦63.84bn (2011/12), ₦73.37bn (2013/14), ₦32.44bn
(2015), and ₦38.55bn (2016).
All
the 36 states and the FCT accessed their grants between 2005 and 2012,
according to the documents. In 2013/14, only Abia, Ebonyi and Ondo failed
to access the grant.
But
15 states failed to access the funds in 2015. They are: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa
Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo,
and Plateau.
Last
year, the official data indicated that only three states accessed their grants.
They are Borno and Rivers (₦1.04billion each), while Nasarawa only accessed ₦607.85
million out of its statutory ₦1.04 billion.
On
special education, the document indicated that from 2005-2016, the commission
released ₦12bn of which N10bn was accessed by the beneficiaries.
On
teacher professional development, the data shows that from 2009-2016, UBEC
released over ₦50b grants to the states and FCT, but only N40bn was accessed.
The
UBEC’s head of public relation unit, Mr Ossom Ossom said state governments
couldn’t access the intervention funds because they failed to meet up with the
stipulated conditions.
He
said the 1999 constitution and the relevant section of UBE Act 2004 mandates
state governments to provide primary and secondary education to all
citizens.
Ossom
however said the constitution also empowers the federal government to intervene
and offer support to states in critical areas of UBE implementation.
To
this effect, he said the federal government collaborates with states and local
government authorities in implementing the UBE programme.
States' reactions
The
Executive Secretary of Katsina State Basic Education Board, Lawal Buhari Daura,
said the state is processing the release of ₦1.42 billion as matching grant to
enable it access the 2017 UBEC funds.
Daura
explained that the state has fully accessed that of last year 2016 which
projects are marked as 2015.
Edo
State has not been able to access the 2017 fund because of lack of funds, the
acting chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Suleman
Ali, said.
“When
former Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole came to government, we met lots of
grant that were not accessed, so we look for money and pay our matching grant,
and we were able to access the fund up to 2015,” he said.
Imo
State Commissioner for Information Engr. Obinna Nshirim said it is not yet late
for the assessment of the funds since the year has just started and has not
ended.
The
commissioner said that before Governor Rochas Okorocha came to power there were
backlog of unassessed counterpart funds amounting to ₦3 billion, adding that
since he came on board he has cleared it.
Kogi
State Commissioner for Education, Dr Tolorunleke Sunday, said the State
Executive Council has just given approval for the release of counterpart funds
required to access the UBEC fund.
The
Chairman of Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Philip
Tachin, has said that the state government is working assiduously to access the
2017 UBEC fund.
Tachin
said that though, the allocation for 2017 matching grant was still on paper as
budget that has not been passed, the state government has not forgotten about
the UBEC fund for 2016.
Plateau
State like many other States has not accessed its own share of the Universal
Basic Education Commission (UBEC), fund for the last three years due to its
inability to pay the 50 percent counterpart funding.
The
Executive Chairman of Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB),
Prof. Mathew Sule told Daily Trust on phone that the state was committed to the
cause of basic education but confirmed that it was yet to access the UBE funds
for 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Nasarawa
State recently accessed its UBEC matching grants for 2016, the state executive
secretary of SUBEB, Yakubu Ahmed Ubangari, said.
He said Governor Tanko Al-Makura had recently paid ₦4.3 billion to Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) as its counterpart fund for six years.
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