BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF.
The issue of lackadaisical approach to assessing grants by state governments has become recurring, particularly when it comes to grants jointly funded by federal and sub national level.
In the last seven years , the federal government through Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC has been battling with states over glaring refusal to access the quarterly / yearly available grants made available by the federal government through counterpart funding to promote both Basic and Junior Secondary Schools Education.
This was happening at a time government at the national level was making a concerted efforts to end the scourge of out of school children OOSC in the country by going beyond provision of funds / grants to even including parents of children who are out of school in its anti poverty program like the Conditional Cash Transfer CCT.
According to the reports that filtered in during the visit of the House of Representatives and Senate Committee on Basic Education, the refusal to access the UBEC grants for states had been a stumbling block that had militated against the operation of Basic and Junior Secondary Schools Education in the country, as revealed by the Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi.
While raising an unusual alarm in the meeting , he stated that for 2024 , only two states out of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory have accessed the matching grants .
The states are Kaduna and Katsina state even at that , they only access first and second quarter leaving out the third and current fourth quarter of the year.
The two states represented just a paltry assessment of the whole grants that is less than ten percent out of the 100% funding been provided yearly by the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
While providing an overview of UBEC grant access from 2020 to 2024, Bobboyi explained that the failure to access these funds remains a significant challenge for Basic and Junior secondary education in Nigeria.
“He noted that for the 2020 UBEC matching grant, 34 states and the FCT had accessed the funds, while only Abia and Ogun states had not. ”
“According to him, in 2021, 33 states and the FCT accessed their grants, leaving Abia, Imo, and Ogun still pending. ”
“He said that by 2022, 29 states and the FCT had utilised the grants, with Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun, and Oyo yet to do so. For 2023, 25 states accessed grants for the first to fourth quarters.”
“For the 2020 UBE matching grant, 34 states and the FCT have accessed it, while two states—Abia and Ogun—have not. For 2021, 33 states and the FCT have accessed it, leaving Abia, Imo, and Ogun yet to do so.”
“In 2022, 29 states and the FCT accessed the grants, with Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun, and Oyo yet to access theirs. For 2023, 25 states accessed the grants for the first to fourth quarters.”
While commending the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu under his Renewed Hope Agenda for prompt release of funds to the commission to curb Basic and Junior Secondary Schools Education crises, particularly the Out of School Children OOSC.
“Bobboyi, who also revealed the financial allocations for the commission in recent years, said that in 2024, UBEC received an allocation of N263.04 billion, which is 2% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), while N103.29 billion was allocated for 2023. ”
“He confirmed that the full N103.29 billion for 2023 had been released, while 83.33% of the 2024 allocation, totaling N219.20 billion, had already been disbursed.”
“However, in terms of regional performance in accessing UBE grants, Bobboyi praised the North-West zone for achieving a perfect 100% rate. ”
“Other zones followed with the South-South at 97.92%, North Central at 97.76%, North East at 97.57%, South West at 92.28%, and South East at 85.37%.”
“The UBEC boss also identified several challenges hindering progress in basic education, including a lack of political will and commitment from some state governments, inadequate budgetary allocations for education at the state and local government levels, and poor teacher quality. ”
“He further lamented the non-compliance with the federal directive to teach history in basic schools and the growing number of out-of-school children as major issues that require urgent attention. ”
With all these , they will be the need to accelerate the amendment of UBEC act that will provide an opportunity for direct execution of programs and projects among other activities without the input of the state governments, leaving out policy statements at the peck and call .
These alone will be enough guarantee to stall the out of school children OOSC quagmire among many other laudable policies and initiatives of the current leadership under Dr Hamid Bobboyi.
Written BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF on yus.abubakar3@gmail.com.
