Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services have commended the Oyo State government on the quality of projects executed in the state, and overall achievements in the area of basic education.
The commendation was made by the deputy chairman of the committee, Hon. Usman Zanna (APC, Borno), after the committee inspected projects in the state.
He said the state under Governor Seyi Makinde has lived up to its name of a Pace Setter, by surpassing all expectations.
Zanna led a delegation of the committee to Oyo State on oversight visit to inspect and assess the level of utilization of federal government matching grant released to the state to develop basic education infrastructure.
He said only Oyo State has paid part of counterpart funding in 2021, and that this attests to the state government’s commitment to the improvement of education.
While receiving the delegation at the State Executive Chamber, the deputy governor, Rauf Olaniyan, said the education drive of the Oyo State government is responsible for the drastic reduction in the number of out-of-school children in the state.
Olaniyan stated that one of the cardinal points of the Makinde administration is education, and that the state hopes to regain its pace-setting status by ranking first in examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council before the administration runs out in 2023.
He restated the state government’s commitment to infrastructure development and capacity building for schools, saying the administration would do all possible including, payment of counterpart funds and cordial relationship with the Universal Basic Education Commission, to improve the state of education in the state.
Earlier, the executive chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Nureni Adeniran, had noted that the team had inspected the projects embarked upon by the state government in collaboration with UBEC, and was satisfied with the level of work done.
He said the state government had paid the backlog of counterpart funding to UBEC as well as all required funding, including counterpart funds for the 2020/2021 intervention projects.
The SUBEB boss enjoined the committee to facilitate the release of funds and all other necessary donations due to Oyo State from UBEC, including the yet-to-be assessed $3 million advance funds for Better Education Service Delivery, a World Bank-Assisted loan.