N130b UBEC funds Lying Idle.
…As States fail to provide Counterpart Funding
The Federal Government yesterday regretted the inability of some governors to access the counterpart funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to develop basic education in their states.
The government said over N130,000,000,000 was lying idle with UBEC because of the inability of some states to provide the 50 per cent matching grant to access the funds.
Education Minister Adamu Adamu said this at the 65th National Council on Education meeting in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital.
Adamu, who spoke through the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, urged the affected states to re-prioritise basic education as the bedrock for further and continued education.
The minister, in a statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations in the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Gong, noted that basic education was too strategic to be ignored by state governments.
Emphasising the need for co-operation from the states, Adamu said the task of developing education at all levels, securing children and ensuring basic sanitation in schools required that all hands be on deck to achieve the desired results.
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Tallen, called for greater stakeholder cooperation in the efforts to eradicate the out-of-school children phenomenon in the country.
The former Plateau State deputy governor added that no child should be left behind in the acquisition of education. Also, President of the Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Ajibade Augustine, stated that members of the association were determined to take more children off the streets in their efforts to eradicate the out-of-school children across the country. More at: https://thenationonlineng.net/states-fail-to-access-n130b-ubec-funds/