Hamid Bobboyi, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), has raised the alarm that 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have not accessed the 2024 UBE matching grant.
Bobboyi made this disclosure on Monday in Abuja during an oversight visit by the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) to the commission.
He highlighted that only Katsina and Kaduna states had accessed both their first and second quarters of the 2024 matching grant.
Providing an overview of UBE 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 UBE 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.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted him as saying, “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.”
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.
