The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said it disbursed N533.7 billion to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory between 2005 and 2021 for basic education.

This is contained in a statement by UBEC’s spokesman David Apeh, on Tuesday.

Reacting to insinuations that N110 billion accessed by states as intervention funds has not been utilised, the commission said N30.8 billion was not accessed as of June 6.

The commission noted that only 17 states had accessed up to the fourth quarter of 2021, including Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Nasarawa, Osun, Taraba and Zamfara.

While all states and the FCT have accessed the 2005 to 2017 matching grant, the commission said  Anambra, Imo, and Ogun had not accessed any quarter in 2019 matching grant.

UBEC noted that the information, which appeared on a national daily of June 12, was a misrepresentation of comments made by UBEC executive secretary Hamid Bobboyi during a briefing on the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA).

The commission said the executive secretary put measures in place to drastically reduce the level of un-accessed funds through stakeholders’ engagement and ensuring transparent management of the funds.

According to UBEC, the 50 per cent counterpart fund, which is one of the requirements for accessing the matching grant is a law as contained in the UBEC Establishment Act. 

(NAN)