With Nigeria’s education sector contending with the impact of Covid-19 on schooling activities, YouthHubAfrica (YHA), a non-governmental organisation that serves as a platform for young people working for social change, has released its analysis of the response it received from the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Commission after filing a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

The response to the FoI request, which was filed by YHA in March, 2020, disclosed that four states, Anambra, Enugu, Kwara and Plateau, led the list of states that have failed to access over N66.8 billion from the UBE Fund. The UBE Fund, for which state governments are eligible, provides matching grants for improving the quality of basic education across the country. Through the fund, the federal government provides 50 percent counterpart funding for eligible state government education projects.

Following from its analysis of the FoI response, YHA therefore demanded immediate action from concerned state governors on accessing matching grants for which their various states are eligible. YHA also called on the Nigerian Governors Forum to organise a peer review of the UBE Fund with the goal of proffering concrete ideas for reform. Finally, YHA urged the National Assembly to, through its committees on education, call for public hearings on UBE grant disbursements from 2005 to date and put in place reforms that will aid the drawdown of UBE Fund resources.

Source: YouthHubAfrica

Photo source: United Nations Photo