The Republic
Policy Library

EducationActive· UBEC

Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme

Basis: UBE Act 2004. Compulsory free education primary 1 through JSS 3.

Statutory basis

Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act 2004

The UBE Act of 26 May 2004 makes nine years of basic education compulsory and free for every Nigerian child. UBEC disburses a matching-grant fund equal to 2% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to State Universal Basic Education Boards, conditional on State counterpart funding. As at 2024 over ₦80bn of UBE grants remained unaccessed by states unable to provide their counterpart contribution. UNESCO estimates 20 million Nigerian children of school age are out of school — the highest absolute figure of any country.

Other Education policies

Methodology

Tier 1 · primary

Courts. Gazettes. National archives.

Tier 2 · corroborating

OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.

Tier 4 · tertiary, flagged

Wikipedia only where primary is pending. Always labelled.