N130bn UBEC Fund Unutilised – Federal Govt

Federal Government has said over 130,000,000,000 in Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) custody is still unutilised due to inability of states to provide their 50 per cent counterpart funds.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who stated this at this year’s 65th National Council on Education meeting in Jalingo, Taraba State, lamented the inability of some states of the federation in accessing counterpart funds.

This was made known in a statement on Friday, by the Director, Press and Public Relations of the Ministry, Ben Bem Goong.

Speaking through the Minister of State for Education, Hon Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, the Minister said the affected states need to reprioritise basic education as it is the bedrock for further and continuing education, too strategic to be ignored.

According to the statement, the Minister emphasised need for cooperation from the states, saying “the tasks of developing education at all levels, securing our children and ensuring basic sanitation in our schools requires that all hands must be on deck to achieve the desired results”.

Also speaking at the occasion in a goodwill message, former Deputy Governor of Plateau State and current Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Tallen, called for greater stakeholder cooperation in the efforts to eradicate the out of school children phenomenon, adding that no child should be left behind.

President of the Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Evangelist Ajibade Augustine, stated that members of the Association are more than ever before, determined to take more children off the streets in their efforts at eradicating the out of school children phenomenon.