Ekiti Commits ₦9.7bn to UBEC Funds, Overhauls Basic Education

ADO EKITI — The Ekiti State Government has announced a total investment of over ₦9.7 billion in counterpart funding to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), executing a massive overhaul of the state’s public primary and junior secondary education sectors.

​The financial commitment, executed under the administration of Governor Biodun Oyebanji over the past three and a half years, has reportedly triggered an unprecedented turnaround in pupil enrolment, school infrastructure, and academic performance indicators across the state.

​Speaking during an interactive session with journalists in Ado Ekiti on Saturday, the Chairman of the Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Prof. Femi Akinwumi, provided an analytical breakdown of the matching grants accessed between 2022 and 2025. According to the SUBEB chief, the state government consistently upscaled its allocations annually to match federal funding requirements, releasing ₦1.2 billion in 2022, ₦1.39 billion in 2023, and a staggering ₦3.55 billion combined across the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years.

​Prof. Akinwumi noted that the aggressive funding strategy successfully transformed public basic education in Ekiti by expanding physical access to classrooms, increasing the retention rate of pupils, and drastically lowering the population of out-of-school children within municipal and rural areas.

​Extensive Institutional Upgrades

​The multi-billion Naira capital injection has translated into widespread structural interventions in public schools across the state’s 16 local government areas. Highlighting the physical milestones achieved during the period, the SUBEB chairman disclosed that a total of 699 classroom blocks were completely renovated. The systematic construction schedule saw the rehabilitation of 208 blocks in 2022, 168 blocks in 2023, 161 blocks in 2024, and 162 blocks in 2025. An additional 106 classroom blocks are currently undergoing active reconstruction or new development.

​Beyond structural shells, the board prioritized learning comfort by procuring 8,410 pieces of furniture for pupils and 1,447 desks for instructional staff.

​To boost school hygiene and security—key factors affecting student retention—the administration sank 59 industrial boreholes to provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities, while simultaneously constructing 41 perimeter fences to fortify vulnerable school premises against external security threats.

ADVERTISEMENT

​Human Capital and Staff Welfare

​The state government’s intervention extended heavily into teacher capacity building, direct recruitment, and welfare packages. Between 2023 and 2026, a total of 8,336 basic education teachers benefited from modern pedagogical capacity-building initiatives, alongside specialized training for 355 early childhood caregivers.

​To bridge long-standing personnel deficits, the Oyebanji administration recruited 1,500 new teachers and 200 non-teaching staff in 2023, adding 362 institutional security guards in 2024 to secure the revamped facilities.

​On professional advancement, the board finalized the promotion of 7,178 primary school teachers who had been stalled under previous administrative cycles. In a move described by Akinwumi as a historic milestone for the state’s civil service, 259 senior teachers on Grade Level 15 were successfully elevated to Grade Level 16.

​To cushion prevailing economic challenges, the government disbursed ₦268 million under the state’s staff housing and vehicle loan scheme for primary school educators, with Governor Oyebanji recently approving an additional ₦200 million injection to recapitalize the revolving loan facility. Furthermore, over ₦860 million has been disbursed directly to public primary schools as running grants since 2022, eliminating illegal school levies, while an additional ₦182.3 million was spent on providing standard instructional textbooks and learning aids.