By Our Correspondent

National News – Despite Nigeria’s worsening education crisis, state governments have failed to access about ₦97.88 billion allocated for basic education, leaving critical funds idle while millions of children remain out of school.

21 states and the Federal Capital Territory had not accessed their funds under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) scheme as of March 2026, mainly because they failed to provide the mandatory counterpart funding required to unlock the grants.

The funds were designed to improve primary and junior secondary education across Nigeria under the Universal Basic Education programme established by the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act of 2004.

However, states must contribute 50 per cent counterpart funding before they can draw the federal allocation.

Data obtained through a Freedom of Information request by a legal team led by human rights lawyer Femi Falana showed that the total unaccessed funds had reached ₦97,881,553,326.94.

The highest default occurred in 2025, when ₦68.1 billion remained untouched.

According to the findings, Imo State topped the list of defaulters with ₦10.6 billion unaccessed, followed by Ogun State with ₦9.7 billion and Rivers State with ₦7.8 billion.

Other states with large unused allocations include Niger State, Abia State, and Oyo State.

The situation is occurring amid what global agencies describe as a severe education emergency.

According to UNICEF, Nigeria has about 18.5 million out-of-school children, the highest number globally.

The crisis is largely driven by poverty, insecurity, cultural barriers and weak education financing.

Falana criticised both federal and state authorities for failing to guarantee free education for Nigerian children despite existing laws and court rulings.

He argued that the continued failure to access UBEC grants reflects poor governance and lack of political will, noting that even when some states access the funds, they sometimes fail to properly deploy them to improve classrooms, teachers and learning materials.

Education experts warn that leaving such funds unused could worsen poverty, insecurity and youth unemployment.

They also stress that the nearly ₦98 billion could have been used to build classrooms, train teachers, provide textbooks and expand education access nationwide.

Analysts say unless states urgently meet the counterpart funding requirement, Nigeria risks deepening a crisis that threatens its future workforce and national development.