‘Abia hasn’t accessed UBEC funds in four years’

 The Federal Government has decried the refusal of state governments to access the Universal Basic Education Commission funds, saying that the development is depriving hundreds of pupils conducive learning environments and thousands of employment opportunities.

It also fingered Abia as leading a list of defaulting states that have yet to access the N41bn UBEC funds earmarked for education programmes in four years.

While saying that only Borno State was up to date in accessing its share of UBEC funds, the FG said the reasons why the states default included “the inability of beneficiary states to account for previous allocations, inability to pay 50 per cent of their counterpart funding and in some cases, outright lack of commitment to the course of basic education.”

A statement by the Deputy Director (Press and Public Relations) in the Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong, said the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, had issued the warning during a meeting with 21 chief executives officers of agencies in the Federal Ministry of Education.

Anwukah said the need for state governments to access the over N41bn made available to them by the FG through the UBEC to improve on education infrastructure at that level remained critical, given the imperative of basic education in the nation.

He said, “The refusal and or inability of states to access their share of the UBEC funds is strangulating the development of basic education nationwide. The absolute necessity for states to access this fund cannot be overemphasised. Doing otherwise is not only depriving the country’s children the conducive learning environment they desire; it is also depriving Nigerians of thousands of employment opportunities that could be generated if N41bn is injected into the economy through such productive activities.

“It is economically wasteful to allow such amount of money to lie dormant, especially at a time the country is in dire need of improving its gross domestic product and strengthening its currency.”

The minister ruled out the possibility of altering the ratio of contribution between the federal and state governments (50:50), adding that the Federal Government “will continue to exert the necessary pressure on states to access their fund as and when due in the interest of the Nigerian child.”

He stressed that some of the primary schools where some children attend classes under tree shelters were sometimes used as voting centres, where politicians collate their votes.