States leave ₦30bn education fund untouched

Some state governments have not paid the counterpart fund that will qualify them to access the Universal Basic Education (UBE) funds statutorily provided for the development of the sector. The funds have been accumulating since 2005, said Minister of Education, Ruqayyatu Rufa’i.

Mrs Rufa’i disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at a one-day retreat on President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda as it relates to the Nigerian basic education sub-sector.

She said that considering the fact that basic education provides the solid foundation upon which other sub-sectors rely, the federal government has indicated keen interest in the sector by relaxing some stiff processes involved in accessing the fund.

“Following Mr President’s approval to domicile the funds with the commercial banks, a good number of states are now able to access funds from UBEC.

“For example, matching grant funds transferred from CBN 2005 to August 2010 stood at ₦32,900,373,025.27. Amount of receipts from August 2010 to July 2010 was ₦23,484,048,706.99. Because of Mr President’s approval to domicile funds with commercial banks, the total disbursement to states from August 2010 to July, 2011 stood at ₦25,750,657,012.39,” she said.

Mrs Rufa’i also lamented that despite this provision some states have refused to collect their allocation with which to build and renovate school buildings, buy instructional materials and train primary school and junior secondary school teachers in their states.

“The total unaccessed funds by states is ₦30,633.564,719.97.

“Out of this figure, the following states top the list of unaccessed grant from 2005-2011 as at August 3, 2011: Akwa Ibom – ₦1,465,294, 572.80; Anambra – ₦1,465,294, 572. 80; Bayelsa – N1,630,091,868.80; Benue – N2,113,909,436.80; Ebonyi – N2,297,727, 004.80; Imo – N1,228,972,951. 41; Kano – N1,465,294,527.80 and Ogun – N1,350,389,167.18.”

Ezenwo Nwike, minister of state for education, also added that the current administration was ready to invest and support efforts geared towards making education a major tool for building a sustainable economy but frown at the fact that states are abandoning their basic education fund at the UBE Commission.

“It is dissatisfying to note that states are yet to access federal grants that have been available since since 2008 from UBEC simply because of their failure to pay up their counterpart funds.

“Such an attitude smacks of lack of commitment and dedication to effective implementation of the UBEC scheme and constitutes a setback to the federal government’s efforts towards meeting its obligation under the MDGs of providing universal access to basic education to all by 2015.”