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UBE grants: ‘Only N38bn so far accessed by 36 states’

By Victor Sam, Abuja

Published: Wednesday, 6 Feb 2008

The Universal Basic Education Commission on Tuesday said out of the total N90bn given to the body since 2005 by the Federal Government, only N38bn has so far been accessed by the 36 states.

It said 12 states were yet to access any of the grants for 2006 which stood at N30.4bn.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed, released the figures at a meeting of the UBEC management and State Directors of Planning, Research and Statistics in Abuja.

He said the body was worried that the states were not able to access their statutory grants, which meant the services of the commission were not being undertaken at the appropriate tempo.

He said it was very worrisome that Nasarawa State was yet to access its second quarter matching grant since 2005, while Edo, Akwa Ibom, and Jigawa states had outstanding grants for that year too.

Mohammed said, “The statutory allocations to the commission from the Federal Government from 2005 stood at N90.08bn as at December 27, 2007. Out of this amount, the sum of N24.3bn was received in 2005, N30.4bn for 2006, and N35.3bn was received for 2007.

“But it is so unfortunate that the cumulative disbursement of the FG/UBE Intervention Fund to states and other private providers of basic education stood at N38.7bn as at December 27, 2007.

“Out of the amount, N21.8bn was disbursed in 2005, N14.99bn in 2006, and N1.9bn for 2007. 12 states are yet to access 2006 Matching Grant. These are Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Jigawa and Kwara.

“Others are Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, and Yobe. Only Ondo and Katsina states have accessed up to the 2nd quarter of 2007 Matching Grant.”

Mohammed said the inability of states to access the grants as at when due and the ineffective and inefficient utilisation of collected intervention fund by the states were becoming a serious challenge for the commission.

He also listed other challenges as undue political interference with the implementation process, weak capacity of States, unreliable data for programming planning, and difficulty in getting all out-of-school children access to basic education.

However, a source at the meeting told our correspondent that the underlying factor why most of the states have not been able to access their matching grants was their inability to account for past disbursements.

He said most of the States were mismanaging the funds given to them and has made it difficult for them to go back and ask for more without accounting for earlier collections.