Accessibility of UBEC funds under review, says education minister

July 31, 2025 by Our Reporter

The Minister of State for Education, Dr. Suwaiba Ahmad, has said the guidelines for accessing intervention funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) are currently being reviewed to make them more flexible.

Ahmad spoke at a two-day interactive session on Government-citizens’ Engagement organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Foundation yesterday in Kaduna.

Three weeks ago, UBEC had accused state governments of not utilising the N250 billion they accessed from the Commission.

According to the Commission, the states retained the funds instead of utilising the resources to develop basic education.

But yesterday, the minister noted that going forward, the disbursement of funds to the state governments would be tied to performance metrics.

She added: “This is to ensure quality control and value for money.”

UBEC’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Aisha Garba, accused the states of the infraction at a three-day financial management training programme which opened in Abuja on July 21.

The most common issue with the UBEC fund was the failure of states to provide counterpart funding to enable them to access it.

Dr. Garba, represented by Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical),  Razaq Akinyemi, said: “The basic challenge remains not only accessing the remaining UBE Intervention Fund, but importantly, the slow utilisation of the Fund with over N250 billion still being retained as unutilised in the coffers of the 36 SUBEBS & FCT-UBEB as at today.”

UBEC is funded as a first-line charge from the collectable education tax and other sources.

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It is made available to states after their counterpart funding for the development of basic education.

Lapses identified by the UBEC boss include slow access to the UBE Matching Grant, slow utilisation of the fund, non-compliance with the fund utilisation guidelines, diversion of funds, non-deduction and remittance of taxes, non-compliance with the due process in the award of contracts for the execution of basic education projects, non-adherence to the approved action plan, among others.

She emphasised that UBEC’s goal is to ensure that participants understand and carry out the very crucial responsibility of ensuring that every naira allocated to the UBE programme is accounted for and effectively utilised in ways that add value and have a positive impact on the learning outcomes of the Nigerian child.

The training is for state officials who are managing the universal basic education to enable them to widen their knowledge and develop better skills.

It was a three-day event which held from July 21.

“This edition of the training is thus another critical milestone in our collective pursuit of ensuring transparency, accountability, and prudence in the management of public resources entrusted to us for the delivery of quality basic education.

“That is why we have carefully ensured that this particular training is expected to cover a range of pertinent areas including the new template for preparing SUBEB Action Plans, Overview of the Nigerian Tax Reforms Act, 2025, financial infractions, violations resulting in audit queries & red flags in the execution of UBE funded projects, Procurement Procedures, and maintenance of financial records, among others,” Dr. Garba said.

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