The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has said N68 billion funds that would have improved basic education across Nigeria is still lying dormant.
The commission disclosed this during a two-day training workshop for South South States UBEC Boards Directors and Desk Officers of the Department of Physical Planning, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, on Thursday.
Speaking during the training, UBEC’s Executive Secretary, Aisha Garba, attributed the failure of states to meet the basic requirements for accessing the dormant funds to complexities caused by slow utilisation and systemic inefficiencies.
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Aisha, who was represented by her Special Assistant, Ibrahim Gold, said the revised Basic Education Action Plan (BEAP) template would erase the bottlenecks that induced the failure of states to access the funds.
Calling on the participants to embrace the revised BEAP template, the executive secretary stated that the new template which was officially unveiled at a meeting in Makurdi on May 25, 2025 was revised to champion results-based planning and financial accountability
Accordingly, she stated that the workshop aims to bring the new tools and support systems directly to SUBEB Directors and Desk Officers of the Department of Physical Planning responsible for the planning and execution of action plans in their various states.
“This capacity building workshop is in line with reforms, especially in the area of developing work plans to access the UBE Intervention Funds.
“The thinking in the Commission is to have only one work plan for the different envelopes of the intervention funds i.e. Matching Grants, Teacher Professional Development, Special Needs etc.
“Therefore, the need to come up with workable and user-friendly templates for the preparation of work plans to replace the existing one that has been in operation for over two decades,” she stated.
While applauding the workshop performance held for Northern States in Kano, Aisha Garba urged participants in the South South to come up with a better performance rating.
In their separate remarks, UBEC’s Director Physical Planning, Sadiq Saiad, and the Executive Chairman, Akwa Ibom SUBEB, Dr Aniette Etuk, urged participants to pay attention to details so as to understand the intended purpose of the workshop.