JUST IN: States fail to access N67bn UBE fund
State governments have not accessed the over N67bn Universal Basic Education, UBE, intervention fund, despite the myriad problems affecting basic education in Nigeria.
A recent UNICEF report stated that out-of-school children have increased from 10.5 million to 13.2 million.
The UBE fund was established by the federal government to assist states in providing educational infrastructure at the basic education level.
The states are to provide counterpart funding to be able to access the matching grants.
However, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Lagos, Rivers and Federal Capital Territory have not picked up the fund in 2017, legal luminary, Femi Falana, has revealed.
Falana wrote, ” I have just been informed by UBEC that the amount that has not been accessed is N67 billion and that Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Lagos, Rivers and Federal Capital Territory have (not) accessed the fund up to 2017.
The UBEC intervention fund was established in 2004.
See the FG-UBE marching grant disbursement report as of January 2018 UBE_grants2