Over N47 billion has piled up at the Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN, as funds various state governments are yet to access for
the funding of primary education across the country.

This was disclosed yesterday by the Public Relations Officer of
the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, Mr David
Apeh while speaking to Vanguard in Abuja.

Apeh further buttressed his claim by presenting a document
which showed the affected states in a tabular format.

He explained that release of UBE funds are regulated in such a
manner that both the Federal and state governments have to
contribute equal sums into an account domiciled with the CBN
before the allocation to state governments could be released to
them.

However, UBEC which regulates disbursement of the funds has
often complained that whereas the Federal Government has
always provided its own contribution to the fund for financing
primary school education, many state governments have
defaulted over the years.

Leading the pack of states that have defaulted in contributing
their own counterpart funds since 2005 is Ebonyi whose
unaccessed funds so far stand at N3,464,442,842.66 . The
table further shows that Enugu trails behind Ebonyi with
N2,506,955,448.10. Benue is next with a total of
N2,405,836,855.35. Abia State’s pile of primary education
funds come next and stand at N2,306,955,447.10.
Other states whose primary education funds have been lying
idle at the apex bank are: Kogi- N2,281,051,859.84;
Nassarawa- N2,280,524,553.14; Ogun- N2,280,524,553.14;
Oyo-N2,280,524,553.14 ; Yobe- NI,854,056,196.18 and Niger,
N1,773,764,924.18.

The states that have collect all their UBE allocations are
Katsina and Sokoto.

Throwing more light on the role of UBEC, Apeh stated it is an
intervention agency that was established to ensure that
Nigerian children have access to primary education all over the
country.

Said he: “One of our duties is to make sure that the Federal
Government’s contribution to this fund is available so that the
state governments would come forward to claim them by
providing their own equal contribution. This is basically for the
development of primary schools in the 36 states of the
federations and the Federal Capital Territory.

This is because education for all is the responsibility of all; that
is to say, the local, state and Federal tiers of Government are
involved. UBEC’s responsibility is to ensure that things are
done properly in primary schools across the country which is
the foundation for educational system.”

However, he accused some state governments of refusing to
come forward to collect these funds because they have refused
to provide their own contribution.

Said he: “What has been happening is that the Federal
Government has been keeping funds aside and asking the
various state governments to come forward and collect them.
But these state governments have not been complying
probably because of lack of political will or some other reasons
best known to the affected state governors. This is why large
sums of money which are supposed to have collected by the
affected state governments are still piling up at the CBN. This is
the reason why you observe that primary school pupils sit
under trees to receive lessons in some states of the federation.”
He continued: ” These funds are supposed to be used for the
construction of more classrooms and making of school
furniture so that both the pupils and teachers could be more
comfortable in the school environment”.

He explained that the basic condition for the affected state
governments to collect these funds is for them to make their
own contribution to the fund.

According to him: “For instance, if one million Naira has been
set aside as UBE fund for a particular state by the Federal
Government, all that the affected state government needs to do
is to contribute its own N1 million to the fund. Based on this
contribution, the sum of two million Naira would then be paid
to that state government and this fund must only be utilized for
financing development of primary schools.”
He further stated that the commission was considering
sanctions that could be applied by defaulting state
governments.

Said he: “We have sent an amendment to the National
Assembly whereby we proposed that the UBE Act should be
amended in such a manner to empower the National Assembly
to deduct such counterpart funds for primary education at
source from the allocations of the various state governments at
the Federal Allocations Accounts Committee, FAAC.”

Babyboy1986: H.

Edwardhead: I shared this and what next?

jorhney:



you be mumu i swear

RichDad1: Leaders of tomorrow..,

iceberylin:
all your Followers will be Notified

NewsBliss: but why cant that money be used immediately?