The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has said the un-accessed matching grant in its coffers now stands at N30.8 billion.
The commission made this known in a statement yesterday, while reacting to a publication by a national daily on a claim that there is non-utilisation of about N110 billion UBEC funds in coffers of the state governments.
The statement signed by David Apeh, head, public relations of the commission, said it has disbursed N533.7 billion for Universal Basic Education (UBE) to 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from 2005-2021.
The statement read in full: “The attention of the Management Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has been drawn to an editorial by the Sun Newspaper of 20th June, 2023 to the effect that about N110 billion of the intervention funds accessed from UBEC were not utilised by states as of 2021 with the money left in the coffers of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs).
“This is not only a misrepresentation of comments made by the executive secretary of UBEC at a briefing to flag off the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) but a mischievous of way of distorting facts to put the commission in the bad light.
”The authors also falsely alleged corruption at UBEC and calling for thorough investigation and the culprits brought to book by the government while also talking about undue politicisation of UBEC Funds.
