In a departure from previous practice, the Tinubu Administration is making a spirited move to enable several state governments to receive hundreds of billions of Naira in federal funds dating back to 2020 through the Universal Basic Education Fund, clearing a five-year backlog.
Empowered Newswire is reporting that the President, on his return from Paris last week, approved the plan by the Minister of Education, which included updated data and statistics on how the funds can transform basic education in each of the over 30 states expected to benefit from this new strategy.
According to a top presidency source, the new strategy developed by Dr. Tunji Alausa and endorsed by the President is to indicate to each State Governor how the funds can change the fortunes of primary education in terms of teacher training, classroom buildings, safe learning environments, and significantly reduced out-of-school figures. This would be specific, unique information for each state.
State governors of relevant states have started receiving communications from the Education Minister detailing the data on out-of-school situations and other basic education challenges in their states and explaining how the funds would dramatically transform the obstacles.
The presidential source said the president’s plan is “to positively arm-twist” the state governments to urgently access the hundreds of billions in Universal Basic Education funds that several states often ignore due to their inability to raise the matching funds.
In the past, while most states ignored the funds by not meeting the matching funds, the federal government has remained laid-back, uninspired by the excuses and refusals of the States that don’t come up with their counterpart funding.
But the Aso Villa source said, “The Education Minister came up with the plan to tease out the governors’ interests by supplying data on how much transformation is possible with the funds and decided to communicate this directly to the affected Governors.
In a copy of such communication seen by Empowered Newswire addressed to the Ogun State Governor whose state is one of those who have not accessed the UBEC funds since 2020, the Education Minister wrote in a letter dated April 24, 2025 that Ogun State government is specifically entitled now to a total of N7B, 816, 600, 698.99K as unaccessed between 2020-2024 as UBE matching grant.
The letter tabulated the amounts due to the State since 2020, thus:
Ogun State 2020-N715, 074, 135.14k; 2021 -N946, 646, 664.48k; 2022-N1,204, 452, 353.76k; 2023-N1,395,784, 959.14k; 2024 -N3,554,642, 584.46k.
To access the funds, the Minister urged Governor Dapo Abiodun to “please provide an equal amount of N7 B, 816, 600, 698.99K being State Counterpart Fund in compliance with Section 11 Subsection 2 of the UBE ACT 2004 to enable the State to access the funds.”
The Minister, who wrote a similar letter to all the Governors affected, then added the following to Governor Abiodun:
“Your Excellency, these funds are critical to expanding quality education in Ogun State by constructing new schools in underserved communities and addressing other gaps, including the need for the rehabilitation of 5126 classrooms, construction of 1299 school fences, 996 toilets, 1016 boreholes, & training 14,772 teachers. These investments will significantly reduce the burden of 182,596 out-of-school children, increase primary and JSS enrolment from the current 79% & 59% and improve access to safe, effective learning environments. Additionally, they will help advance foundational literacy beyond the current 35%.”
As of December 2024, 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory have yet to access the N263,043,551,250.30 Universal Basic Education matching grant 2024.
Only Katsina and Kaduna states have accessed their matching grant’s 2024 first and second quarters.
In February 2025, 9 states settled a cumulative debt of N37bn, enabling them to access their long-dormant basic education funds at the Universal Basic Education Commission.
According to data obtained from UBEC, as of January 2025, the nine states that had paid their counterpart funds include Borno, which cleared N3,554,642,564.46 for the first to fourth quarters of 2024, and Jigawa, which also settled the same amount for the same period.
Kano paid N1,777,321,282.23 for the first and second quarters of 2024, while Ondo cleared N3,554,642,564.46 for all four quarters.
Nasarawa matched that amount for the same period. The Plateau settled N4,950,427,543.60, covering the first to fourth quarters of 2023 and 2024. Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa paid N3,554,642,564.46 for the whole year.
Katsina, meanwhile, also settled N1,777,321,282.23 for the first and second quarters of 2024.
Taking it back to December 2023, the N64 billion Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) fund, meant to facilitate access to quality basic education, could not be accessed by state governments.
