The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has expressed concern over the failure of many state governments to utilise more than N250 billion in intervention funds disbursed to support basic education across the country.

The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Aisha Garba, made this known on Monday in Abuja while declaring open a three-day Financial Management Training for fund managers of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The training, which brought together Directors of Finance and Accounts, Heads of Internal Audit and Matching Grant Desk Officers, was themed: “Efficient and Effective Management of UBE Intervention Fund, a Key to Successful Basic Education Service Delivery.”

Dr. Garba, who was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical), Razaq Akinyemi, said the major challenge was not only the slow access to the UBE matching grant by state governments, but also their inability to properly utilise the funds for infrastructure development and the improvement of teaching and learning conditions in schools.

She recalled that upon her assumption of duty in January 2025, her first official task was the supervision of the 46th Financial Monitoring exercise on the utilisation of the Federal Government-UBE Intervention Fund in the North Central Region.

According to her, that exercise exposed numerous lapses in the management of UBE funds at the state level.


These included slow access and poor utilisation of the grant, non-compliance with fund usage guidelines, diversion of funds, failure to deduct and remit taxes, disregard for due process in contract awards, and non-adherence to approved Action Plans.

To address these challenges, she said the Commission reviewed the Utilisation Guidelines, introduced a new template for SUBEB Action Plans, and approved capacity-building initiatives at both national and international levels for UBEC and SUBEB personnel.

Dr. Garba noted that these efforts have begun yielding positive results, with improved access to the UBE fund by several states.

She disclosed that between January and June 2025, a total of N92.4 billion, representing the UBE matching grant, was accessed by 25 states and the FCT.

She further revealed that N19 billion was disbursed as the 2023/2024 Teacher Professional Development (TPD) fund to 32 states and the FCT, while N1.5 billion under the School-Based Management Committee – School Improvement Programme (SBMC-SIP) was released to 1,147 communities across the 36 states and the FCT.

Despite these disbursements, the UBEC boss lamented that over N250 billion remains unutilised in the coffers of the states and FCT, warning that the situation continues to undermine efforts to improve the quality of basic education in the country.