State governments across Nigeria had a combined N264.12bn in Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) matching grants unspent as of July 2025, despite persistent reports of dilapidated classrooms, overcrowding and shortages of learning materials in public schools.

The 2025 UBEC Annual Report, obtained by The PUNCH, showed that the funds had been disbursed to State Universal Basic Education Boards but remained unspent in state government accounts during the commission’s financial monitoring visits on July 21, 2025.

Benue recorded the highest unspent balance at N19.18bn, followed by Imo with N14.12bn, Osun with N14.02bn, Kwara with N13.99bn and Delta with N13.40bn. Together, the five states accounted for N74.72bn, representing about 28.3 per cent of the total.

Other states with substantial balances included Borno at N13.20bn, Anambra at N12.67bn, Kano at N12.15bn, Adamawa at N11.38bn and Gombe at N11.09bn. In total, 10 states had more than N11bn each in unspent grants.

The report did not establish why the funds remained unused or whether the balances had changed since the monitoring visits. It also did not break down the amounts inherited or spent by successive administrations, making it difficult to assign responsibility to individual governors.

Falana calls for accountability

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, criticised the failure to utilise funds earmarked for basic education, accusing state governors of neglecting the educational needs of poor children.

He urged state governments to deploy released intervention funds and meet the requirements for accessing counterpart grants. Citing a Federal High Court judgment on the obligation of governments to provide free, compulsory and universal basic education, Falana called for greater accountability in the management of the funds.

The unspent balances have drawn attention to the gap between education funding and conditions in some public schools. However, the figures alone do not establish how many classrooms could have been built or renovated, as that would depend on approved budgets, project specifications and procurement costs.

UBEC matching grants can support approved projects, including classroom construction and renovation, desks, instructional materials, sanitation facilities and teacher development.

Under the scheme, state governments generally provide counterpart funding equivalent to 50 per cent of eligible project costs and submit approved action plans before accessing the federal contribution. The N264.12bn reported by UBEC relates to funds already disbursed but not spent, rather than grants states could not access because they failed to provide counterpart funding.

Benue schools remain in poor condition

Benue, which had the highest reported unspent balance at N19.18bn, continues to face concerns over the condition of some public primary schools.

A political office holder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, questioned why the state had not used the funds to rebuild or renovate schools damaged during years of attacks on communities by suspected herders.

“Benue State has suffered a lot from Fulani herdsmen attacks, and several schools were destroyed in the process. My concern is, if the state government has this amount of money, why is it difficult to channel it towards renovating or rebuilding our schools?” the source said.

However, a local government chairman from Benue North-East Senatorial District disputed the suggestion that the reported balance indicated wrongdoing. He described the funds as part of a World Bank-assisted education programme and claimed their utilisation was awaiting templates for approved projects.

“It’s not an issue of corruption. The fund is a World Bank-assisted programme, and it is not peculiar to Benue alone. The World Bank is yet to release the funds because it is waiting for templates upon which the money is going to be spent,” he said.

The chairman also said he had heard that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was investigating the matter, but provided no details to substantiate the claim.

Other local government chairmen attributed the poor condition of some schools to years of attacks that damaged buildings and left communities needing reconstruction and renovation.

A report by civic technology organisation MonITNG also raised concerns about RCM Primary School in Adikpo, Mayange Mbayan, Ushongo Local Government Area, which it said had been abandoned since 2023 despite residents’ appeals for renovation.

Pupils at LGA Primary School, Nbegha, in Buruku Local Government Area, were also reportedly still receiving lessons in difficult conditions more than eight years after a windstorm damaged parts of the school building.

Efforts to obtain comments from the state Commissioner for Education, Dr Margaret Adamu, and the Executive Secretary of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Grace Adagba, were unsuccessful.

Osun cites financial constraints

Osun State Commissioner for Education Dipo Eluwole attributed the state’s difficulty in accessing fresh UBEC matching grants to its inability to raise the required counterpart funding.

Osun had an unspent balance of N14.02bn in the report, the third-highest among the states. Eluwole said Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration had cleared outstanding counterpart-funding obligations covering 2019 to 2023 after taking office in 2022.

“When Governor Ademola Adeleke assumed office, the last time counterpart funds were paid for Osun State to access UBEC funds was in 2018. On assumption of office, he went to the Universal Basic Education Commission, collected the data and offset the funds for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. He paid them off,” he said.

The commissioner said the state needed about N3.5bn in counterpart funding in the previous year and approximately N2.7bn in the current year, but was struggling to raise the money.

He attributed the difficulty partly to what he described as the withholding of local government allocations since February 2025, as well as deductions for debts inherited from the previous administration. He said the state government had taken over several obligations, including salaries for primary and junior secondary school teachers, local government workers and health personnel, alongside pensions, gratuities and medical supplies.

Eluwole also cited financial pressures affecting the School for Persons Living with Disabilities, saying its reopening had been delayed because suppliers were owed three terms of feeding and upkeep costs.

He said the state had recently managed to pay for one term, allowing food supplies to resume. The commissioner’s comments explain the state government’s position on its funding difficulties but do not independently reconcile the N14.02bn balance recorded in the UBEC report.

Kwara schools face infrastructure challenges

Kwara, with a reported N13.99bn in unspent grants, also faces concerns about the condition of public schools.

A report by The PUNCH in March documented deteriorating facilities at Warah Community Junior Secondary School in Ilorin West Local Government Area, where some classroom ceilings had collapsed, windows were broken and wooden supports were in poor condition.

Pupils were reportedly learning in overcrowded classrooms and makeshift shelters built by community members, with some sitting on bare floors because of inadequate classrooms and furniture.

At Government Day Secondary School in Lafiagi, Kwara North, photographs obtained by the newspaper showed dilapidated classrooms in the Universal Basic Education section and a staff room without a ceiling, fan or windows. Renovation work on senior secondary classroom blocks and the examination hall, which reportedly began in 2025, remained incomplete.

The delays had left some senior students sharing available spaces, including science laboratories, for lessons.

A member of the Warah school’s education committee, Alhaji Isiaka Warah, said the community had written repeatedly to authorities seeking intervention but had received no response.

However, the Chairman of the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board, Raheem Adaramaja, disputed the reported unspent balance when contacted by The PUNCH.

“I don’t know the source. However, it is not true,” he said.

Asked for the state’s current balance or records detailing the utilisation of the funds, Adaramaja maintained that there was no delay in utilisation but did not provide an alternative figure or supporting documents.

In 2022, Adaramaja said the state government had inherited more than 2,000 dilapidated school structures and paid N7.1bn in counterpart funding for the 2014–2019 period to access UBEC grants. That historical account did not explain the balance subsequently reported by the commission.

Meanwhile, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq recently announced donations totalling N180m for Islamic education, research and scholarships during the centenary celebration of Az-Zumratul Adabiyyah School of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Ilorin. The donations were designated for Islamic education, university research and student scholarships and do not establish the availability or allocation of funds for public basic school infrastructure.

The state Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Lawal Olohungbebe, had promised to respond to the newspaper’s enquiries, but no response had been received by the time the report was filed.

UBEC flags financial management concerns

UBEC has previously raised concerns about the management of intervention funds at the state level.

In July 2025, the commission’s Executive Secretary, Dr Aisha Garba, reportedly identified challenges including slow utilisation of matching grants, non-compliance with fund management guidelines, alleged diversion of funds, failure to deduct and remit taxes, breaches of due process in contract awards and departures from approved action plans.

The concerns were raised during a financial management training programme for state and FCT officials responsible for finance, internal auditing and matching grants.

The issues highlight the difference between releasing public funds and ensuring that they translate into completed projects and better learning conditions.

Although the report does not establish that the unspent money was stolen or diverted, the scale of the balances raises questions about project planning, procurement, implementation timelines and financial oversight.

Determining responsibility will require state-by-state records showing when funds were released, which administrations received or inherited them, the projects approved, expenditure incurred and the balances remaining at the end of each administration.

With public schools continuing to face infrastructure and learning-resource challenges, state governments and their education boards are under pressure to explain the unspent balances and demonstrate how intervention funds will be used to improve basic education.