SUBEB spends N19bn to construct, renovate 3,782 classrooms in 7 years – Director

By Muhammad Lawal

Birnin Kebbi, Aug. 25, 2022

Alhaji Umaru Shehu-Adili, Head of Physical Planning Unit, Kebbi State Universal Basic Education Board (KBSUBEB), on Thursday said construction and renovation of 3,782 classrooms across the state had gulped N19 billion in seven years.

He made the disclosure at the flag-off of a two-day workshop and interactive session for SUBEB and Technical Officers from 21 Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs) of the state held at Shagalinku Hotel in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day event, organised by Kebbi State Universal Basic Education Board was on 2021 FGN-UBE matching grant projects implementation.

Shehu-Adili lauded the efforts of Kebbi State Government under Gov. Atiku Bagudu for prompt payment of counterpart funds for the UBE programme.

According to him, since inception of the programme, Gov. Bagudu remained the only governor who was paying counterpart funds for seven years consecutively.

He said: “His Excellency has so far injected not less than N19 billion as counterpart funds for UBE project matching grants. With this amount, we constructed and renovated no fewer than 3,782 classrooms for conducive learning atmosphere in public schools across the state.

“In this year’s intervention, we have a proposal for renovating 164 classrooms spread across the 21 LGEAs of the state.

“We intend to construct three blocks of classrooms, about 22 blocks of 44 classrooms and each LGEA must have a minimum of a block of two classrooms, with exception of Birnin Kebbi and Jega who will have additional classrooms due to unavoidable pressing demand.”

He added that renovation of blocks of classrooms in about eight Junior Secondary Schools would be carried out, in addition to drilling of 6,000 litres of motorised boreholes in each of those schools among others.

In a keynote address, the Chairman, KBSUBEB, Prof. Suleiman Khalid noted with satisfaction that Kebbi State was ahead of all the 17 states currently running Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme across Nigeria according to reports.

He assured that from the verification exercise conducted, the state was still maintaining its lead, “I am assuring you that no state in the federation can match our performance.

“It is almost certain now, because nearly 50 per cent of projects and activities have been covered and we are still in the lead.

“This cannot be achieved without your commitment, dedication, teamwork and zeal with which you pursued the programme. We must therefore thank you sincerely and we hope at the end of the programme we will gather again to thank you more for making Kebbi proud.”

While urging them to keep the flag flying, the chairman charged them to brace up to the challenges ahead.

He said the current administration had injected huge resources in the basic educational sector across the state.

Of the 3,782 renovated and constructed classrooms, Khalid said 1,314 new classrooms were constructed while 2,478 were renovated.

“Our renovation is so good that, once they are finished, people can hardly make a distinction between the renovated and newly constructed,” he assured.