- It’s high time the idea was reviewed to maximise its benefits
Nigerians must be shocked that about N60billion meant for the development of primary education is lying idle with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), given the terrible state of the education sector across the country. The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, who made the disclosure at a meeting with education correspondents in Abuja said the money has remained unutilised because many state governments are not able to provide their counterpart funds and that this was hampering the growth of basic education.
This is obvious.
N60billion may appear small considering the number of primary schools it is meant for; but then, it would have gone a long way in addressing some of the problems in the schools, especially by the time the state governments add their counterpart funds to it. Bobboyi said: “On the issue of matching grant to states, if we provide N1billion to a state, the state is expected to bring its own N1billion and this expands the resource base available to the basic education sector. This is the reason why I feel very worried that after the Federal Government pays its own matching grant, the state would withdraw its own counterpart fund.”
Since each state government is to add the equivalent of whatever the Federal Government provides under the UBE arrangement, what we are talking about is in the region of N120billion. We can only imagine how far this can go in ameliorating the challenges in the primary schools.
Unfortunately, many state governments cannot provide the counterpart fund because most of them are in dire straits due to the country’s economic downturn. Many are unable to settle their monthly wage bills; they cannot even continue ongoing developmental projects not to talk of starting new ones.
Statistics from the commission on the un-accessed matching grant from 2005 to 2016 as at March 31, showed that only two states – Borno and Rivers – had so far accessed last year’s grant while Ebonyi, the least performed state in terms of access and utilisation of the fund has about N4 billion un-accessed fund with UBEC. Enugu and Ondo states have over N3 billion each un-accessed, while Bayelsa, Niger, Ogun and Oyo has N2.8 billion un-accessed fund each.
This, as Dr Bobboyi observed, is really demoralising. But more worrisome is the diversion of the money by some state governments to their main accounts and even illegal withdrawing of their counterpart fund after the Federal Government would have provided the matching grant. Some states even went ahead to fix the money in banks. According to the commission’s boss: “There are many states that were involved in the withdrawal of funds over a period of time. We don’t go out to embarrass anybody but we take action. The kind of action we take is that if we notice gross violation, we close down the matching grant account, we freeze it and then ask the state to come and tell us exactly what had happened with the fund”.
It would appear that the fact that state governments continue in their ‘iniquitous’ ways in spite of the sanctions is indication that the arrangement has outlived its usefulness. The localised issues that made some state governments to shun the fund are a clear marker of the conflict of federalism in the country. For instance, the Babatunde Fashola administration in Lagos had issues accessing the fund a few years ago because the state government needed money for infrastructure in the schools whereas the UBEC insisted it must spend it on classroom projects. Why would a central government that is so far away be in a position to assess what the needs of primary schools are in the states?
Perhaps it is time for the Federal Government to come up with a new model if it wants to continue with the arrangement. Clearly, the present system has become counter-productive. Money should not be lying idle when there are problems to solve.
