State governments have retained N250 billion Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds they accessed instead of utilising the resources to develop basic education.

Executive Secretary Dr. Aisha Garba disclosed the twist to the UBEC arrangement yesterday at a financial management training programme in Abuja.

The most common issue with the UBEC fund was the failure of states to provide counterpart funding to enable them to access it.

Dr. Garba, represented by Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical), Razaq Akinyemi, said: “The basic challenge remains not only accessing the remaining UBE Intervention Fund, but importantly, the slow utilisation of the Fund with over N250 billion still being retained as unutilised in the coffers of the 36 SUBEBS & FCT-UBEB as at today.”

UBEC is funded as a first-line charge from the collectable education tax and other sources.

It is made available to states after their counterpart funding for the development of basic education.

Lapses identified by the UBEC boss include slow access to the UBE Matching Grant, slow utilisation of the fund, non-compliance with the fund utilisation guidelines, diversion of funds, non-deduction and remittance of taxes, non-compliance with the due process in the award of contracts for the execution of basic education projects, non-adherence to the approved action plan, among others.

Garba emphasised that UBEC’s goal is to ensure that participants understand and carry out the very crucial responsibility of ensuring that every naira allocated to the UBE programme is accounted for and effectively utilised in ways that add value and have a positive impact on the learning outcomes of the Nigerian child.

The training is for state officials who are managing the universal basic education to enable them to widen their knowledge and develop better skills.

It is a three-day event which started yesterday.

“This edition of the training is thus another critical milestone in our collective pursuit of ensuring transparency, accountability, and prudence in the management of public resources entrusted to us for the delivery of quality basic education.

“That is why we have carefully ensured that this particular training is expected to cover a range of pertinent areas including the new template for preparing SUBEB Action Plans, Overview of the Nigerian Tax Reforms Act, 2025, financial infractions, violations resulting in audit queries & red flags in the execution of UBE funded projects, Procurement Procedures, and maintenance of financial records, among others,” Dr. Garba said.

However, it is not all gloom. The UBEC boss highlighted some of the good deeds in recent times.

“Between January and June, 2025, N92.4billion being UBE Matching Grant has been accessed by 25 states and FCT,” she said.

The Commission disbursed N19billion, being the 2023/2024 Teacher Professional Development (TPD) fund, to 32 states & FCT.

It gave out N1.5billion SBMC School Improvement Programme (SBMC-SIP) fund to 1,147 communities in the 36 states and FCT.

“This training, therefore, seeks to equip the fund managers with the skills required for making the necessary changes so as to address the challenge from issues of access, to timely utilisation as well as effective oversight and accountability at the grassroots.”

UBEC is a federal agency saddled with coordinating all aspects of the UBE programme implementation.

It was introduced in 1999 as a reform programme aimed at providing greater access to, and ensuring the quality of, basic education.

Its vision is to be a world-class education intervention and regulatory agency for the promotion of uniform, qualitative and functional basic education in Nigeria.

Its mission is to operate as an intervention, coordinating and monitoring agency to progressively improve the capacity of states, local government agencies and communities in the provision of unfettered access to high-quality basic education in Nigeria. (The Nation)

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