Documents obtained via FOI by a legal team led by Femi Falana show that 21 states and the FCT failed to access UBEC funds due to unmet counterpart funding requirements, even as Nigeria’s out-of-school population rises to 18.5 million.
Several states across Nigeria have failed to access approximately N98billion set aside by the Universal Basic Education Commission for basic education due to their failure to provide the needed counterpart funding.
Documents exclusively obtained through a Freedom of Information request by a legal team led by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana cited by punch show that at least 21 states and the Federal Capital Territory have failed to access their allocations as of March 2026.
Nigeria’s Education Emergency
The current situation is alarming as it comes amidst Nigeria’s worsening education crisis, with the country now hosting the highest number of out-of-school children globally.
Data from UNICEF, corroborated by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education and cited in multiple policy briefs between 2024 and 2026, puts the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria at approximately 18.5 million, the highest in the world.
UNICEF notes that this figure represents nearly one in every five out-of-school children globally, with the majority concentrated in northern Nigeria, though the crisis increasingly affects southern states due to economic hardship and infrastructure deficits.
UNICEF had warned that unless urgent investments are made in foundational education, Nigeria risks “a generational catastrophe” with long-term consequences for economic growth, national security and social cohesion.
How The UBEC Funds Work
Under the UBEC intervention framework established by the UBE Act of 2004, the Federal Government provides annual matching grants to states to support basic education development.
However, states are required to provide 50% counterpart funding before they can access the grants a mechanism designed to ensure ownership, accountability and sustainability.
This counterpart funding requirement has posed a major challenge as 2025 recorded the highest default in the history of the scheme, with ₦68.1bn left untouched in a single year due to the failure of states to provide the needed funding.
Defaulting States and Compliant States
Amongst the 21 defaulting states, Imo State tops the list with ₦10.6bn in unaccessed funds. Ogun follows with ₦9.7bn, while Rivers ranks third with ₦7.8bn. Other major defaulters include Niger, Abia and Oyo states, each with over ₦7.1bn unaccessed.
The Federal Capital Territory also has ₦5.07bn in idle funds, while Ekiti, Bayelsa and Adamawa states each account for over ₦3.5bn.
Primary Education Crisis and Nigeria’s Productivity Trap
The failure of states to access UBEC funds sits within a deeper structural crisis in Nigeria’s primary education system—one that directly constrains long-term economic productivity and development. Beyond access, the quality of learning remains critically weak: an estimated 37 million Nigerian children are unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10, while disparities between urban and rural attendance, teacher absenteeism, and poor infrastructure continue to undermine outcomes. Primary education—the foundation of human capital formation—is therefore not translating into skills, literacy, or cognitive capacity at scale.
The economic implications are profound. Education is a core driver of productivity in endogenous growth models, shaping innovation, labour efficiency, and income mobility; yet Nigeria’s large population of out-of-school and poorly educated children is estimated to cost the economy up to 7–13% of GDP annually in lost productivity. With nearly half of Nigerian children experiencing multidimensional deprivation and limited access to quality education, the country risks locking in a low-skill, low-productivity growth path—one in which demographic expansion outpaces human capital development, weakening competitiveness, deepening inequality, and constraining the transition to a more diversified, knowledge-driven economy.
