President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Aisha Garba, an international development specialist, as the executive secretary of Universal Basic Education (UBEC).
This was disclosed in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), on December 17, 2024.
The presidency described Garba as a senior education specialist with the World Bank, who brings more than twenty-four years of experience driving impactful programs in education for human and economic development, working in Nigeria, Ghana, Somalia, Kenya, the USA, and the United Kingdom.
“The President expects the new Executive Secretary of UBEC to drive the renewed hope and vision of providing and supporting quality education and ensuring that Nigerian children become globally competitive,” the statement partly reads.
Brief Profile
- Garba bagged a Bachelor of Arts combined degree in English and Computer Studies in 2000.
- She eventually got a master’s in international development at the University of Birmingham in the UK in 2007.
- According to the presidency, with over 15 years of hands-on experience at the World Bank, Garba has consistently led end-to-end design and management of education programs and reforms, from conceptualization to completion and impact assessment.
“Apart from being actively interested in and involved in human development issues, the development specialist will share her rich network with governments, development partners, and communities, as well as the skills she acquired working in fragile, conflict, and violent settings to deliver sustainable solutions in basic education.
“Garba had previously worked on the team that met the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets in Nigeria and consulted for the World Bank, Department for International Development, BOND-UK, Regent Foundation, and Muslim Aid Organization,” the statement added.
She is an alumna of Petra American University in Jordan.
What you should know
Garba is apparently taking over from Dr. Hamid Bobboyi.
In line with the president’s directive, UBEC is expected to sustain the federal government’s education drive.
- Four months back, the Federal Government had increased the matching grants for state governments’ infrastructure projects under the Universal Basic Education (UBE) to N3.5 billion.
- This update was announced by the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, during a five-day financial training for State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB) Chairmen and Board Secretaries in Ibadan.
- Bobboyi said the approval followed the passage of the 2024 Appropriation Bill, which was assented into law by the President.
“The grant complies with Section 11 (2) of the UBE Act, 2004,” he said.
“The 2024 Federal Government Statutory Allocation of the UBE Matching Grant to each state is over N3.5 billion,” Bobboyi said.
He voiced that states are required to match this amount with their own N3.5 billion counterpart funding to support UBE intervention projects for the first through fourth quarters of 2024.