Morganable politics/Governance
The lawmakers maintained that government institutions must operate within established financial procedures, particularly when funds appropriated for specific statutory responsibilities are temporarily deployed to address other expenditure requirements.
KaNo—
The House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, and the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, over an outstanding N75bn reportedly borrowed from the Universal Basic Education Commission.
The lawmakers directed the two senior government officials to appear before the House Committee on Public Accounts on Thursday, October 22, 2026, to explain the circumstances surrounding the borrowing and provide a definite timeline for repayment.
The directive followed growing concerns over the withdrawal of funds belonging to government agencies to meet other financial obligations without clearly defined repayment arrangements, prior notification or established guidelines.
At an investigative hearing held in Abuja on Friday, the committee, presided over by its Deputy Chairman, Jeremiah Umaru, expressed dissatisfaction with the explanations offered by representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
The lawmakers maintained that government institutions must operate within established financial procedures, particularly when funds appropriated for specific statutory responsibilities are temporarily deployed to address other expenditure requirements.
The committee insisted that borrowing between government institutions should be accompanied by clearly documented terms and conditions, including the purpose of the transaction and the expected repayment date.
“For each borrowing, there should be terms and conditions attached,” the committee said.
“We want to know what your plan is. You borrowed money for certain reasons, but you should be willing to return it within a specific period, even without interest, since it is government-to-government.”
Umaru explained that the committee was particularly concerned about the outstanding N75bn belonging to UBEC, stressing that the matter required direct commitments from the officials responsible for managing government finances.
He said the appearance of the minister and the Accountant-General would enable lawmakers to establish a mutually agreed repayment schedule and bring the prolonged financial dispute to a conclusion.
“The main issue we are looking at is N75bn. We need the Accountant-General to appear in person, and we want the Honourable Minister to appear in person too so that we can get a timeline.
“We want to agree on when this money will be paid so that we can close this matter once and for all,” Umaru said.
The committee expressed concern that the continued withholding of funds belonging to UBEC could affect the implementation of basic education programmes across the federation.
According to the lawmakers, the commission requires predictable access to its financial resources to support educational interventions in states and federal constituencies, particularly programmes intended to improve access to quality basic education.
They warned that delays in returning borrowed funds could disrupt planned projects and undermine the commission’s capacity to discharge its statutory responsibilities.
Beyond the UBEC debt, the lawmakers also questioned the reported practice of deducting as much as 50 per cent of the revenues generated by certain government agencies on a monthly or quarterly basis.
The committee observed that such deductions, particularly when undertaken without prior notification or a clearly established regulatory framework, could significantly weaken the financial capacity of affected institutions.
Members noted that several agencies depended on internally generated revenues to meet personnel expenses and finance their daily operations, making unexpected deductions potentially disruptive.
“The agencies cannot do anything now because of those deductions. They use these monies to pay staff and fund their operations, but they can no longer do so because the funds have been taken without prior notification,” Umaru said.
Responding to the concerns, a Deputy Director in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ezeoke Christopher, acknowledged the borrowings, explaining that they were internal financial arrangements designed to address funding shortfalls and meet pressing government obligations.
Christopher told the committee that the arrangements were partly necessitated by the need to finance personnel expenditure, which reportedly exceeded N1tn monthly.
He explained that the government had been making efforts to refund the borrowed funds, disclosing that repayments amounting to as much as N90bn had been made, while more than N70bn remained outstanding.
However, the explanations failed to convince the lawmakers, who insisted that the financial transactions required greater accountability and a clearly defined repayment framework.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Muhammed Danjuma, also provided explanations during the hearing, but the committee maintained that the principal officials must appear personally to address the outstanding questions.
The lawmakers stressed that financial pressures facing the Federal Government should not justify arrangements capable of undermining the operations of agencies established to deliver essential public services.
They maintained that transparency, proper documentation and adherence to established financial procedures remained necessary for effective management of public resources.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, Olajumoke Akinyemi, briefed the committee on the implementation of the commission’s matching grants programme across the country.
Akinyemi disclosed that more than 20 states accessed their matching grants in 2025, while over 13 states had accessed theirs in 2026.
The executive secretary identified Imo, Ogun, Anambra, Lagos, Kwara and Katsina as states with outstanding issues concerning counterpart funding requirements.
However, Akinyemi explained that several affected states were taking steps to fulfil the necessary conditions and access funds allocated to them.
The matching grants programme requires participating state governments to provide counterpart contributions before accessing funds intended to support basic education development.
The arrangement is designed to promote shared financial responsibility between federal and state governments in addressing educational infrastructure and other basic education needs.
Akinyemi further disclosed that the Universal Basic Education Act was undergoing legislative consideration for amendment to enable the commission to redeploy funds that remained unaccessed by states after two years.
The proposed amendment, according to the commission, would strengthen the utilisation of available educational resources and prevent funds from remaining unused indefinitely because of states’ inability to meet counterpart funding requirements.
The development comes amid concerns over the need to improve funding efficiency and accountability in Nigeria’s basic education sector.
The committee subsequently resolved that Oyedele, Ogunjimi and Akinyemi must appear personally before it on October 22 to address the outstanding repayment obligations and other financial issues raised during the hearing.
The lawmakers maintained that a definite repayment commitment was necessary to safeguard UBEC’s resources and ensure that financial arrangements between government institutions did not compromise their statutory responsibilities.
