The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has issued a stark warning: despite federal allocations totaling approximately N250 billion in matching grants meant to boost primary education, many state governments remain inactive, leaving vast sums inaccessible. As of late 2024 and early 2025, 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had yet to tap into at least N263 billion in intervention funds due to failures in meeting the required counterpart contributions and bureaucratic hurdles. This lack of access, UBEC executives warn, threatens critical progress in basic education across Nigeria.
UBEC’s Executive Secretary, Aisha Garba, raised concerns at a high‑level review meeting in Makurdi, lamenting that institutional inefficiencies and foot-dragging by state authorities had stalled millions of naira intended for school infrastructure, teacher training, and educational equity initiatives. She stressed that the inability of state governments to marshal matching funds had created a backlog spanning up to five years of unclaimed grants, and introduced a new work-plan template to guide SUBEBs in navigating disbursement processes more efficiently.
Policy analysts underscore that the problem goes beyond bureaucratic inertia to include lack of political will and prioritization. For many states, education remains secondary to other budgetary commitments, and technical expertise in preparing submissions is weak. Some states that provided matching funds failed to follow through with project implementation or effective oversight. These systemic shortcomings limit UBEC’s ability to translate funding into measurable improvements and risk deepening existing inequalities in learning access.
A breakdown released in early 2025 showed that certain states, especially in the South East, accessed only about 85% of their eligible grants, while zones like the North‑West and South‑South achieved nearly full access. Only a handful of states—including Katsina and Kaduna—had met the conditions to receive their 2024 allocations by mid‑year. Meanwhile, major contributors like Abia, Ogun, Imo, Adamawa, and Anambra were still accounting for billions of naira in unaccessed funds.
The Education Ministry and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have intervened, authorizing a national plan to unlock the funds and compelling state leaders to prioritize basic education funding. Governor-level letters sent in April 2025 cited the precise amounts owed to each state—such as N7.8 billion for Ogun State—and outlined concrete development targets: from building classrooms and boreholes to fencing schools and training thousands of teachers. Tinubu’s administration aims to hold states accountable and break longstanding impasses.
Civil society voices—most notably legal expert Femi Falana SAN—have called on citizens to demand accountability from their governors, emphasizing that unchecked failures in fund utilization violate the rights enshrined in Nigeria’s Child Rights Law and the Universal Basic Education Act. With over 20 million out-of-school children facing an education deficit, Falana warns that political inertia is costing a generation opportunity and undermining Nigeria’s future workforce.
The consequences of continued inaction are severe: dilapidated schools, poorly trained teachers, and widening gaps in learning outcomes, especially in poorer or rural communities. Analysts suggest that states must pair matched funding with transparent project execution, robust monitoring via SUBEBs, and civic engagement to ensure educational interventions yield visible results. Simplifying access protocols, offering technical assistance, and deploying incentives or sanctions could revive uptake.
In sum, while UBEC’s significant intervention funds remain designated for improving Nigeria’s basic education, their impact is neutralized unless state governments step up. Without decisive policy action and public accountability, these resources may continue to gather dust—while Nigerian children lose educational opportunity they are legally owed.
Credit: The nation, The Guardian
