From Kenneth Udeh, Abuja
The Senate has commended the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC for its activities most especially in its utilisation of its 2023/2024 budgetary fund.
The Lawmakers however frowned at the low level of compliance with state Governments with regards the Matching Grants as many states of them failed to meet the necessary conditions to access these funds, leaving much-needed resources untapped for educational development.
This following the submission by the UBEC Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi that a jaw dropping sum of N135,540,905,308.92 billion in matching grants has not been accessed by states between 2020 and 2024.
This was disclosed on Monday during an oversight working visit to UBEC in Abuja the Senate Committee on Education ( Basic and Secondary) led by its Chairman Senator Lawal Adamu Usman , APC Kaduna Central.
In his submission Bobboyi gave an account of the worrisome development that despite the efforts of the Commission , nine states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had not accessed the 2023 UBE Matching Grant.
In their resolution the Senate agreed to consider the amendment of the UBEC Act to empower the commission to utilise the unused funds for direct interventions and to also enable the commission withdraw its own counterpart funding from states that refuse to make use of the Matching grants after a specific period of time.
On 2023/2024 Budget performance Bobboyi while presenting the commission’s performance report disclosed that the sum of N263,043,651,250.30 and 08103,288,086,976.00 being 2% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), were allocated to the Commission under the 2023 and 2024 Appropriation Acts respectively, as statutory transfers in line with Section 11 (1) of UBE Act, 2004.
With regards to the Matching grants, in the year 2023 ,Twenty-Five states accessed the 1st — 4th Quarter while One state Rivers accessed the 1st and 2nd quarter, Nine (9) States and FCT have not accessed the 2023 Matching Grant and the States are: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, imo, Lagos, Ogun , Oyo and Plateau.
For 2024 Two States namely Katsina and Kaduna have accessed 1st and 2nd quarter have accessed while 34 states are yet to access the grant.
Bobboyi pointed out 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.
According to UBEC’s report in terms of regional performance, the North-West Zone emerged overall best by achieving 100 percent access to the UBE matching grant, while the South-South Zone followed closely by 97.92 per cent of its allocated funds.
He said “Katsina and Kaduna have set a positive example by accessing the 2024 UBE Matching Grant early, other states such as Ogun, Abia, and Imo were missing out on the 2020 and 2021 matching grants.
Giving the breakdown of the report, he revealed that seven states had yet to access the 2022 UBE matching grant, adding that the South-East zone was lagging, having accessed only 85.37 per cent of its 2022 matching funds.
He said: “34 states and FCT have accessed 2020 Matching Grant, two states namely Abia and Ogun have not. 33 states and FCT have accessed the 2021 matching grant, three states namely Abia, Imo and Ogun have not.
“29 states and FCT have accessed 2022 matching grant, seven states namely: Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun and Oyo have not.
“Nine states and FCT have not accessed the 2023 matching grant. The states are: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Plateau.
“Two states namely Katsina and Kaduna have accessed 1-2nd Quarter, 2024 matching grant, 34 states and FCT have not accessed 2024 matching grant,” he added.
Dr. Bobboyi provided a detailed performance breakdown by region in accessing the UBE matching grant.
“North-West Zone came 1st position with 100 per cent accessed, south-south zone-2nd position with 97.92 per cent accessed, north-central zone, 3rd position with 97.76 per cent accessed, north-east zone, 4th position with 97.57 per cent accessed, south-west Zone, 5th position with 92.28 per cent accessed, south-east zone, 6th position with 85.37per cent accessed.”
The executive secretary said several challenges hindered the effective implementation of the 2023 and 2024 budgets.
He attributed the challenges to lack of political will and commitment by some state governments towards basic education issues.
He listed other problems such as; High number of out-of-school children and youths including the Almajiri special needs and getting them into basic education Schools ;
Low level of budgetary allocation to basic education at State and Local Government levels;
General insecurity around schools in some parts of the Country (as a result of violent crimes such as insurgency, banditry, kidnappings, communal crises, etc);
Slow pace of Project execution by SUBEBs; Low teacher quality in some States and Non compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the teaching of History in Basic Institutions in some states.
On the Commission’s achievements Bobboyi informed that though the Commission is not a Revenue Generating Agency, however, the sum of N22,170,411.25 and N10,150,000.00 were generated as IGR for the years 2023 and 2024 and remitted into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) as at 31” OOctober.
Other achievements include; for 2023 the Construction and furnishing of 37 Smart Model Schools in the 36 States and FCT;
Construction, furnishing and equipping of a National Digital Resource Center in Abuja;
Establishment and equipment of 109 e-learning centers across 109 senatorial districts;
Construction of 329 classrooms, 83 offices, 75 stores, 465 toilets, 24 computer laboratories, 48 workshops, 22 libraries, 2 clinics, 32 créches, 34 playgrounds, 41 boreholes, 14,296 pupils’ furniture and 83 teachers’ furniture under the North-East ;
Intervention projects include Development of the operationalization system of office automation in the Commission;
And conduct of the National Personnel Audit of teaching and non-teaching staff of basic education institutions (Private and Public).
Earlier, the Chairman Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), Lawal Adams Usman, stressed the importance of basic education for the development and future of the nation.
He said the committee, as the primary oversight body for UBEC, visited the commission in compliance with Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The visit aimed to assess the level of compliance with the full implementation of the 2023/24 budget, identify inefficiencies, waste, and challenges, and make recommendations for improvements.
Senator Usman further explained that the committee would also tour some physical intervention projects, such as the UBEC ICT Centre and Smart Schools within the FCT, to gain a better understanding of the impact of the grants.
While commending the commission for its work so far, he urged UBEC to do more, especially considering the outdated nature and challenges of its enabling law, which is currently being reviewed by the National Assembly.
He said; “It has to do with the state Governments we are looking at amending the laws , currently to amend the UBEC Act to go for the second reading.
“We have to do some amendments that states have to put in 50% before they can have access to the funds.
“On the issue of unutilised funds in the proposed amendment act , we will give a timeline if states can’t bring their counterpart funds the UBEC counterpart fund will reverse back to UBEC”.