Metro
N5bn UBEC fund unaccessed by previous govts in Kwara State —Gov AbdulRazaq
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State on Friday said the state government has left a total of N5,385,619,303.68 unaccessed to improve basic education in the state.
The Governor in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Rafiu Ajakaye, said the fund had remained with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) since 2014.
Ajakaye explained that the governor got to know of the fund not accessed when he visited UBEC on Thursday in Abuja.
He said that UBEC had to blacklist the state because the immediate past administration mismanaged N1.5 billion grant meant to upgrade schools in Kwara in 2013.
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“The officials said the government was later discovered to have borrowed the N1.5 billion from a bank with which it immediately accessed the UBEC fund.
“Upon receipt of the UBEC’s N1.5 billion, Kwara returned the N1.5 billion it had borrowed from the bank and then diverted the UBEC’s N1.5 billion without investing it in educational infrastructure as required by the law,” he said.
He added that this led to UBEC blacklisting Kwara and demanding for immediate refund of its N1.5 billion.
Ajakaye said Kwara later refunded N1.050 billion leaving an outstanding of N450 million which the administration of Abdulfatah Ahmed never paid to UBEC.
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