Why Ekiti was sanctioned — UBEC boss

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has revealed that it banned the Ekiti State Government from accessing the Federal Government intervention fund for the universal basic education due to failure to comply with guidelines laid down by the government...


Under the guidelines, for the state to access the intervention fund, it must submit a project proposal and provide half of the money for the Federal Government to complete the money and monitor the implementation of the project.

The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Dikko Suleiman disclosed this at the opening of a workshop on Entrenching Transparency and Integrity in the Financial and Procurement Processes of UBEC and State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) of the various states and the FCT, organised by the training arm of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, ACAN, in Abuja.

Represented by his deputy, Yakubu Gambo, Suleiman explained that the state was sanctioned in 2013 for allegedly borrowing about N800 million from a bank to claim the money that was domiciled with UBEC.

He further disclosed that the state made an arrangement with the bank to remove the money it (bank) lent it (Ekiti State) as soon as the Commission pays the intervention fund into the account domiciled with the bank.

Suleiman said this was discovered through the monitoring and evaluation team set up by the Commission to see to the implementation of the project proposal submitted by the state government, and the state was subsequently banned from having access to the UBEC intervention.

However, the UBEC boss said the present administration in the state had renewed effort to access the fund to improve state of education in the state, as they had been holding series of meetings to see that the ban is lifted.

Speaking at the workshop, the ICPC chairman, Mr. Ekpo Nta, said the Commission would henceforth focus on the money being released by the Commission to the state to ensure its judicious use.

To this end, he said the Commission as part of its efforts to block all leakages in the country’s education system, decided to educate UBEC officials on the corruption-prone processes in the procurement processes.

Nta maintained that their intervention in the country’s education system became imperative because every Nigerian child is entitled to quality education, and this could not be achieved due to corruption in the system.

In his remarks, the Provost of ACAN, Prof. Sola Akinrinade described the basic education system as “the gateway to the education system in Nigeria, hence, the need to get the system right with regard to the management of internal processes, has made this workshop a necessity.”