Business Post Contributor
By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel
The Oyo State Government has denied claims that it has not paid its counterpart funds to access the Universal Basic Education Commission/State Universal Basic Education Board (UBEC/SUBEB) 2020/21 intervention projects.
Addressing the situation recently in Ibadan, the Executive Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (Oyo SUBEB), Mr Nureni Adeniran, affirmed that the state has paid counterpart funds for 2020 and 2021 to UBEC.
According to him, the Mr Seyi Makinde-led administration has remained faithful to the disbursement 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.
“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,” he said.
Mr Adeniran added that the federal agency essentially is in receipt of the counterpart grant paid by the state government for Years 2020 and 2021 and that the board “equally have evidence of the payment and lodgement of the money.”
In a statement, he affirmed that the federal government agency has, after receipt of the counterpart fund, played its part and action plans for the projects, adding that a team of experts has been sent from UBEC to begin the verification exercise.
The verification exercise, he highlighted, was on all the proposed construction and renovation as well as the school furniture and boreholes to be drilled.
According to the Executive Chairman, “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.”
While stressing that the state government’s claims can be confirmed from the UBEC office in Abuja, he urged journalists and bloggers to be factual on what they report and should clarify stories from the right quarters in order not to mislead the general public.
