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 (UBEC).
The House Public Accounts Committee directed the two officials to appear before it on Thursday, October 22, to provide a definite repayment plan and commit to a timeline for refunding the money.
The committee’s decision followed concerns over the withdrawal and borrowing of funds belonging to government agencies without clear repayment terms, prior notification or established guidelines.
Speaking at a hearing in Abuja on Friday, the committee, chaired by its Deputy Chairman, Jeremiah Umaru, maintained that funds belonging to one government institution should not be used to meet another institution’s financial obligations without clearly defined terms.
“For each borrowing, there should be terms and conditions attached. 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,” the committee said.
Umaru stressed that the Finance Minister and the Accountant-General must appear in person to agree on a repayment date, adding that the matter could not be concluded without a clear commitment.
“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,” he said.
The lawmakers warned that the use of funds earmarked for basic education could disrupt UBEC’s interventions nationwide, potentially affecting states and federal constituencies that depend on the commission’s programmes.
They also raised concerns over reports that some government agencies had up to 50 per cent of their revenues deducted monthly or quarterly without a clearly established regulatory framework.
According to committee members, the deductions had left some agencies struggling to pay salaries and finance essential operations.
“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,” the lawmakers said.
Responding on behalf of the Accountant-General, Ezeoke Christopher, a Deputy Director in the office, acknowledged the borrowings, describing them as internal arrangements designed to address funding gaps and meet statutory obligations.
He explained that the arrangements were partly driven by the need to cover personnel costs reportedly exceeding N1 trillion monthly.
The Accountant-General’s office further disclosed that efforts had been made to refund as much as N90bn, while more than N70bn remained outstanding.
However, the explanations provided by Christopher and the Ministry of Finance’s Permanent Secretary, Muhammed Danjuma, failed to satisfy the committee, which insisted that the two senior officials must personally account for the outstanding funds and present a repayment schedule.
The committee maintained that financial arrangements between government agencies must not undermine institutions that require predictable access to public funds to carry out their statutory responsibilities.
Meanwhile, UBEC Executive Secretary, Olajumon Akinyemi, told the committee that more than 20 states accessed their matching grants in 2025, while over 13 states had accessed theirs in 2026.
He identified Imo, Ogun, Anambra, Lagos, Kwara and Katsina as states with outstanding issues relating to counterpart funding, although he noted that several states were taking steps to meet the requirements.
Akinyemi also disclosed that the Universal Basic Education Act was before the National Assembly for amendment. The proposed changes would empower the commission to redeploy funds left unaccessed by states after two years.
The amendment is intended to improve the utilisation of basic education funds by preventing allocations from remaining unused indefinitely when eligible states fail to access them.
The committee subsequently resolved that Oyedele, Ogunjimi and Akinyemi must appear in person on October 22 to help resolve the outstanding repayment and related funding issues.
The investigation comes amid wider concerns over public financial management and the need to ensure that funds allocated to statutory agencies remain available for their intended purposes.
For UBEC, access to these resources is essential to implementing basic education programmes supported by federal allocations and state counterpart contributions.
The committee said its intervention was aimed at strengthening financial accountability, promoting responsible management of public resources and safeguarding funds allocated to the education of Nigerian children.