The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has called for urgent financial reforms to support Nigeria’s 110 Unity Schools, urging the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) to decentralise financial approvals and introduce quarterly releases to ensure uninterrupted learning activities.
Alausa made the request in Abuja on Wednesday during an official visit by the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Shamsudeen Ogunjimi, where key bottlenecks affecting education funding were discussed.
The Minister highlighted the financial pressures facing Unity Schools due to delays in overhead and school feeding allocations. He disclosed that the last overhead release to the ministry was in March, while the last school feeding budget was received in April, forcing some Unity Schools to operate under severe financial stress and unable to meet basic obligations.
“We’re going through a rough patch. Principals are under pressure from contractors who are blackmailing them over unpaid contracts.
“In fact, I had to delay school resumption in some Unity Schools due to fears of insufficient food supply,” Alausa said.
Proposal for decentralised approvals
The minister proposed a decentralised financial system to enable quicker and more efficient payments for schools.
He recommended that financial transactions below N500 million be approved at the ministry level, while those under N100 million be processed by the agencies.
“What I would suggest, because you’re having to deal with a big country like ours, 220 million people… rather than all payments, even as low as 1 million coming to you, I think you should look back and see which one you can domicile at the ministry and the agencies level,” Alausa said.
He also called for quarterly releases to provide Unity Schools with predictable financial resources and help them plan efficiently.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Shamsudeen Ogunjimi, acknowledged the funding challenges raised and pledged to prioritise financial releases to the Ministry of Education, especially for Unity Schools.
He agreed with the proposal for termly disbursements and requested the Director of Finance and Accounts (DFA) in the ministry to make a formal submission.
“We will prioritise the releases of overhead to the ministry and make sure that, even if others are not getting it due to funding constraints, the Ministry of Education gets theirs on time,” he stated.
Bottom-up policy under review
Ogunjimi admitted that the ongoing bottom-up cash management policy, although designed to fast-track the implementation of approved budgets, has led to operational difficulties due to the nation’s current fiscal situation.
“The fund is not our problem. Had it been that we didn’t have the fiscal challenges that we’re having, it would have been a better policy for us. But because of the deficits that we’re having, it makes the policy very difficult,” he said.
To address this, he disclosed that a high-level committee set up by the Minister of Finance is already reviewing the policy with a new, harmonised version expected soon.
The AGF further revealed that the OAGF is overwhelmed by the volume of budget-related documentation being uploaded by various MDAs under the centralised approval system. This, he noted, is contributing to bureaucratic delays.
“Our capacity has been overstretched because all agencies are required to upload all their documents. So, we continually have to go and expand and dig for this.
“Whereas, like you also said, most of these contracts that are of less value can be handled at the MDA level so that we don’t have to populate those documents on our system,” he said
What you should know
Unity Schools, also known as Federal Government Colleges, are secondary schools established and funded by the federal government to promote national unity by bringing together students from diverse ethnic, religious, and regional backgrounds.
While tuition is officially free, parents are typically required to cover other expenses such as boarding, uniforms, and extracurricular activities. These costs are significantly lower compared to most private schools, making Unity Schools relatively affordable while still providing quality education.
There are over 100 of these schools across the country, and the Federal Government funds them to ensure standardised learning conditions.
