UBEC Earmarks N2bn For Conduct Of Personnel Audit

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has earmarked the sum of N2bn for the conduct of the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA).

The executive secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hameed Bobboyi, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, while briefing journalists on the exercise. Bobboyi said the 2022 NPA, which will be in two phases, had already commenced in 17 States of the federation, specifically in South-East and South-South zones.

He further disclosed that the Northern phase covering 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will begin on July 4 and ends on Saturday, July 23, 2022. Bobboyi acknowledged that absence of credible data has remained a major challenge in basic education implementation for a long time.

The UBEC boss emphasised that for NPA data to be continually useful as a planning tool, it must be regularly updated.

“The 2022 personnel audit should therefore be seen in the light of updating the basic education database,” he added.

According to Dr. Bobboyi, during the exercise, enumerators will visit all basic education institutions in the country, the public, private, approved, unapproved, registered and unregistered.

“They are going to collect basic information on schools and personnel,” he said.

He noted that the NPA exercise has no ulterior motive, stressing that data being collected will assist the country to plan effectively towards expansion of access to quality education and promoting gender parity at basic and other levels of education.

“On the 2022 NPA, the commission will partner with relevant government government agencies, development partners and NGOs , National Bureau of Statistics, National Population Commission , Nigeria Air Space Research and Development Agency, NUT, Association of private school owners, the World Bank, UNICEF, Grid3 among others,” he added.

Earlier, the chairman of the 2022 NPA, Prof. Bala Zakari, said the Commission had generated list of basic schools in each local government area from State Universal Basic Education Boards to address issues of hard-to-reach areas and places facing security challenges.

“We must acknowledge that there is no area where human activity can be 100 per cent perfect,” Prof. Zakari said.

He said that denial of 2022 NPA teams access to schools will further contribute to the increasing number of Out-of-School children.

“The NPA exercise is out to ensure that all existing learning centers will be counted along with available facilities in the schools. We believe it will help partners in their intervention plans and will serve as database for the basic education institutions in Nigeria,” he stated.