Ekiti State government has approved the borrowing of N3 billion to pay counterpart funding to enable it to access the 2019/2020 projects of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
The approval for the loan was given on Thursday at the virtual meeting of the State Executive Council held in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Muyiwa Olumilua, said the loan was to enable Ekiti State Government to meet its statutory 50% counterpart obligation towards the release of funds for UBEC/State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) projects for the year 2019 and 2020.
Olumilua said the fiscal step became imperative on the premise that failure to pay the counterpart fund would disqualify the state from receiving her share of the UBEC/State Universal Basic Education funding. The statement said: “Memorandum on the offer of N3,031,076,059.82 term loan for 2019 and 2020 Ekiti State Government counterpart contribution for SUBEB/UBEC projects, being a Federal and State Government partnership, both tiers of government are required to come up with their respective 50% contributions before the total sum is released to the state government.”
The commissioner stated that the mandate included monitoring of execution of all SUBEB projects in the state, to ensure that all contracts awarded followed due process and were duly executed.
Olumilua added that Governor Olukayode Fayemi also tendered the memorandum for the amendments of the Ekiti State Debt Management Law 2020 at the council, to enable the state to establish the State Debt Management Office (SDMO).
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