• Says more than 70% primary school age children can’t read, understand simple text •FG seeks linkages between state devt plans, sector policies, budgets strengthened •NGF insists priority remains strengthening public financial mgt, service delivery in states Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) revealed yesterday that as of August this year, about N267 billion in released intervention funds was yet to be utilised, while over N65 billion counterpart funding was yet to be accessed by states. Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Aisha Garba, made the disclosure at the opening of a month-long technical capacity-building workshop organised by World Bank-assisted HOPE-GOV Programme to strengthen budget planning and execution for basic education and primary healthcare in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The workshop is part of the federal government’s broader efforts under HOPE-GOV Programme to reinforce governance, planning, budgeting, institutional capacity, and accountability in the delivery of basic education and primary healthcare services. In a goodwill message delivered on her behalf by Coordinator, HOPE-GOV and Director, Teacher Professional Development, UBEC, Maryam Sani Dangaji, Garba lamented that about 70 per cent of Nigerian children of primary school age could not read and understand a simple text. He said it was not a question of spending more. Garba believed more spending would not achieve the inherent learning poverty by itself. She said under the UBEC Strategic Blueprint, the commission was pursuing four priorities, including expanding access to basic education, especially for rural and underserved populations; improving the quality of teaching and learning; reforming and strengthening basic education financing; and optimising institutional systems for quality service delivery. She explained that none of the priorities was possible without governance built on accountability, transparency, and the careful use of scarce public resources, stressing that every naira must show value. “The classrooms we build, the materials we supply and the teachers we train must produce children who can read, write and count,” she said. Garba tasked each of the states to have one consolidated plan for basic education, budget built on that plan, and to spend what was budgeted, adding that UBEC has already laid much of the groundwork. She underscored various initiatives, including, among others, the Revised UBE Intervention Fund Guidelines, a needs-based formula that let states direct funds where the need was greatest, beyond new classrooms; and the Ten-Year Strategic Roadmap (2026–2035), a whole-school approach that fixed every gap in a school. On the unassessed and unutilised funds, Garba stated, “That is money meant for our children, sitting idle. With HOPE-Gov, we are very optimistic that the situation will improve.” In her opening remarks, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Deborah Odoh, stated that the fundamental principle underlying the Disbursement Linked Indicators 2 (DLI 2) of the HOPE-GOV Programme was that budgeting must not be undertaken in isolation from planning. Odoh said a credible budget should be the financial expression of government priorities and the activities intended to achieve them. She said, “We must, therefore, strengthen the linkages between state development plans, sector policies, annual operational plans and consolidated work plans, and ultimately, state budgets. “For primary healthcare, this means ensuring that the Annual Operational Plan provides a clear basis for identifying and prioritising expenditure. Similarly, in basic education, the Annual Consolidated Workplan should provide a clear link between sector priorities and the budget.” The 2027 budget process, she said, presented an important opportunity to translate the principles into practice. In his welcome remarks, National Coordinator, HOPE-GOV Programme, Dr. Assad Hassan, urged the 36 states to move from plans to priorities, from priorities to budgets, and from budgets to results. Hassan stated that the HOPE-GOV Programme was fundamentally about strengthening the systems through which government delivered for its people. Hassan explained that meaningful improvements in basic education and primary health care simply could not be achieved by merely increasing expenditure. He stated, “We must improve the quality of the planning, budgeting, execution and accountability systems through which public resources are converted into services and outcomes. “Our task, therefore, is to close the gap between planning and budgeting. That is why this workshop has been deliberately designed not as a conventional training, but as a practical problem-solving exercise.” Hassan disclos
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