By PAMELA EBOH,Awka

Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has cleared a three-year backlog of the Universal Basic Education matching grants between 2019 to 2021, to enable the state to meet its requirements for accessing the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Universal Basic Education Commission matching grants.

This was disclosed to journalists in Awka on Friday by the Chairperson of the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Vera Nwadinobi, in a midterm report of the implementation of the 2019 to 2021 UBE projects in the state.

She stressed that for the state to meet the requirements for accessing the 2022, 2023, and 2024 UBEC matching grants, it was imperative that it clears its backlog of 2019 to 2021.

Nwadinobi however observed that the governor has “graciously approved the backlog and paid”.

According to her, Gov Soludo’s target is to ensure that Anambra is up to date with its counterpart funding obligations, saying that it is the key to providing quality basic education for Anambra children with positive outcomes.

She said: “Prior to the assumption of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as Governor of Anambra State on March 17, 2022, Anambra State had unassessed Universal Basic Education matching grants for 2019, 2020, and 2021, due largely to the State’s inability to meet its counterpart funding obligations.

"For Anambra to meet the requirements for accessing the 2022, 2023, and 2024 UBEC matching grants, it was necessary for the State to clear its backlog of 2019 to 2021, which Governor Soludo graciously approved and paid.

“The target of the governor is to ensure that Anambra is up to date with its counterpart funding obligations, as this is key to providing quality basic education for Anambra children with positive outcomes.

"It is indeed worthy of celebration that Governor Soludo has, under three years, cleared backlogs of UBE matching grants and has remained committed and up to date with paying the grants since assuming office. We, at ASUBEB, will continue to execute his vision on education with great commitment. I am particularly proud that Anambra is back to winning ways.”

It was however learnt that Anambra State recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Universal Basic Education Commission on June 16.and that created the enabler for the State to participate in additional training on “new templates for accessing FGN-UBE matching grant funds”.

The training which was presided over by the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hajiya Aisha Garba, was held at the Abuja Continental Hotel from June 19-20, 2025.