BY OKEY NDIRIBE
Over N47 billion has piled up at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as funds various state governments are yet to access for the funding of primary education across the country.

This was disclosed yesterday by the Public Relations Officer of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, Mr David Apeh while speaking to Vanguard in Abuja.

Apeh further buttressed his claim by presenting a document which showed the affected states in a tabular format.

He explained that release of UBE funds are regulated in such a manner that both the Federal and state governments have to contribute equal sums into an account domiciled with the CBN before the allocation to state governments could be released to them.

However, UBEC which regulates disbursement of the funds has often complained that whereas the Federal Government has always provided its own contribution to the fund for financing primary school education, many state governments have defaulted over the years.

Leading the pack of states that have defaulted in contributing their own counterpart funds since 2005 is Ebonyi whose unaccessed funds so far stand at N3,464,442,842.66 . The table further shows that Enugu trails behind Ebonyi with N2,506,955,448.10. Benue is next with a total of N2,405,836,855.35. Abia State’s pile of primary education funds come next and stand at N2,306,955,447.10.

Other states whose primary education funds have been lying idle at the apex bank are: Kogi- N2,281,051,859.84; Nassarawa- N2,280,524,553.14; Ogun- N2,280,524,553.14; Oyo-N2,280,524,553.14 ; Yobe- NI,854,056,196.18 and Niger, N1,773,764,924.18.

The states that have collect all their UBE allocations are Katsina and Sokoto.

Throwing more light on the role of UBEC, Apeh stated it is an intervention agency that was established to ensure that Nigerian children have access to primary education all over the country.

Said he: “One of our duties is to make sure that the Federal Government’s contribution to this fund is available so that the state governments would come forward to claim them by providing their own equal contribution. This is basically for the development of primary schools in the 36 states of the federations and the Federal Capital Territory.
This is because education for all is the responsibility of all; that is to say, the local, state and Federal tiers of Government are involved. UBEC’s responsibility is to ensure that things are done properly in primary schools across the country which is the foundation for educational system.”

However, he accused some state governments of refusing to come forward to collect these funds because they have refused to provide their own contribution.

Said he: “What has been happening is that the Federal Government has been keeping funds aside and asking the various state governments to come forward and collect them. But these state governments have not been complying probably because of lack of political will or some other reasons best known to the affected state governors. This is why large sums of money which are supposed to have collected by the affected state governments are still piling up at the CBN. This is the reason why you observe that primary school pupils sit under trees to receive lessons in some states of the federation.”

He continued: ” These funds are supposed to be used for the construction of more classrooms and making of school furniture so that both the pupils and teachers could be more comfortable in the school environment”.

He explained that the basic condition for the affected state governments to collect these funds is for them to make their own contribution to the fund.

According to him: “For instance, if one million Naira has been set aside as UBE fund for a particular state by the Federal Government, all that the affected state government needs to do is to contribute its own N1 million to the fund. Based on this contribution, the sum of two million Naira would then be paid to that state government and this fund must only be utilized for financing development of primary schools.”

He further stated that the commission was considering sanctions that could be applied by defaulting state governments.

Said he: “We have sent an amendment to the National Assembly whereby we proposed that the UBE Act should be amended in such a manner to empower the National Assembly to deduct such counterpart funds for primary education at source from the allocations of the various state governments at the Federal Allocations Accounts Committee, FAAC.”