Oyo State denies retaining N715m education intervention funds
By Onome Amuge
The Oyo State government has debunked reports claiming that it has failed to release N715 million counterpart funds for Universal Basic Education Commission/SUBEB Year 2020 Intervention Projects.
Nureni Adeniran, executive chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, who refuted the allegations, maintained that the state has, in fact, paid counterpart funds for 2020 and 2021 to UBEC. Adeniran added that the federal agency is in receipt of the counterpart grant paid by the state government for 2020 and 2021.
According to him, the responsive administration of Governor Seyi Makinde has been faithful to the release of funds for the basic education sub-sector, in order to attend to the growing number of children in the state’s primary schools.
“Oyo State does not belong to the categories of states that failed to pay counterpart funds to access UBEC matching grants as being erroneously peddled in the above news item,” he said.
Speaking further, Adeniran stressed that the federal government agency has done due diligence after receipt of the counterpart funds and Action Plans for the projects. He also disclosed that UBEC sent its team of experts to carry out verification exercises on all the proposed construction/renovation, as well as the school furniture and boreholes to be sunk.
“They have completed the exercise and submitted their report. There is no doubt that the matching grants will be released to the state any moment from now because UBEC is at the final stage of the exercise,” he said.
“UBEC grants are recurring annual federal educational grants to state governments accessed after payment of specified matching counterpart funds. Despite the huge amounts normally required as a counterpart fund, the Oyo State government under Governor Seyi Makinde has not failed in releasing its part of the funds,” the statement read in part.
The SUBEB chairman advised journalists and online bloggers to clarify stories from the right sources and not mislead the public, noting that the state government’s claims can be confirmed from the UBEC office in Abuja.