Twenty-six states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory have failed to access the sum of N33.6bn earmarked for basic education by the Universal Basic Education Commission.

The fund is lying fallow despite Nigeria being one of the countries with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.

The figure of N33.6bn was obtained from a document in reply to the Freedom of Information request submitted to the commission by The PUNCH.

Findings revealed that so far, no allocations had been made to the affected states for the year 2022.

The breakdown revealed that a total of N528,678,768,160.60 was paid as counterpart funds by the 36 states and the FCT from 2005 to 2021.

The commission noted that between 2005 and 2017, the 36 states and the FCT paid all the counterpart funds.

It was, however, noted that in 2018, 35 states and the FCT paid the counterpart funds up to the fourth quarter, amounting to N1,473,832,845.20 each. Ogun State failed to lodge the sum of N491,267,613.70 as its counterpart funds for the period.

In 2019, the commission noted that 31 states and the FCT lodged up to the fourth quarter their counterpart funds amounting to N1,519,884,078.86 each, while two states, Enugu and Niger, lodged up to the second quarter and three states, Anambra, Ebonyi and Ogun, did not lodge their 2019 counterpart funds.

The addition of the 2019 figures revealed that the five states owed N6,534,886,946.10 collectively.

For 2020, the commission noted that 25 states, namely Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara and FCT lodged up to the fourth quarter their counterpart funds amounting to N715,074,135.14 each.

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Further analysis revealed that 11 states – Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Kaduna, Kwara, Niger, Ogun and Osun – owed N715,074,135.14 each, making the total owed by the states to be N17,865,815,486.54 in 2020.

For 2021, UBEC noted that only eight states – Bauchi, Benue, Edo, Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Nasarawa and Taraba – lodged their counterpart funds up to the fourth quarter by paying N946,646,664.48 each.

It was also noted that eight states namely; Bayelsa, Cross River, Ekiti, Kano, Kebbi, Oyo, Sokoto and Zamfara as well as the FCT owed counterpart funds for the fourth quarter of 2021, which amounted to a total of N1,359,505,128.24 at N151,056,125.36 each.

It was also stated that Plateau State owed counterpart funds for the third and fourth quarters of 2021, which amounted to N348,325,771.28.

The commission, however, listed the states owing the 2021 counterpart funds as follows Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Rivers and Yobe, and put the un-accessed funds at N18,746,470,860.16.

Therefore, a total of N33,638,440,906.5 is still with the commission as of February 10,2022.

The Chairman, Governing Board, UBEC, Prof Adamu Usman, accused the state governments of abdicating their responsibility of funding basic education in their states to the council.

Usman, who in an interview with the weekly bulletin published by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, added that the states did not appear enthusiastic about funding basic education as they had failed to pay their matching grants.

He stated, “Primary and junior secondary education is the primary responsibility of local and state governments. Unfortunately, a good number of the states do not appear enthusiastic about funding basic education.

“As such, they do not always access their matching grants from the UBEC, and when they do, they fail to utilise the accessed funds expeditiously.”