THE EXECUTIVE Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission, Hamid Bobboyi has revealed that total unaccesed grants by the state government have risen to N73 billion naira.
Bobboyi said this on Monday during his presentation to the members of House Committee on Basic Education and Services on an oversight visit to the Commission headquarter on the 2019 budget performance.
The unaccesed fund rose to N73 billion because the 2019 matching grant was due for access by state governments from 31st December 2019, he said.
“Technically, 2019 is un-accessed because you cannot access funds between 31st December, and January 2020. It is an amount that usually accumulates up to the end of the year before people begin to access it, ” he told the House Committee.
Bobboyi further noted that 10 states have deposited 50 per cent counterpart which is a prerequisite for accessing the matching grant.
However, he said Anambra State has been unable to access the fund due to the government’s failure to come up with an action plan.
He explained that the action plan explaining in detail the projects to be executed by the state government is mandatory before the funds are released.
“There was no way the fund could be released without the necessary action plan, this was the only way to track and monitor the implementation of the projects executed with the Federal Government assisted fund,” he added.
According to the Secretary, Kwara State has over 7 billion has been unable to access the fund from 2014 to 2019, Anambra has N4.2 billion, Enugu N4.3 billion, Abia N3.8 billion, and Plateau N3.1 billion among others.
He urged members of the House Committee on Basic Education and Services to liaise with state governments on the need to access the UBE funds and utilize them effectively in the effort to have a functional and literate society.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94