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 borrowed from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

The House Public Accounts Committee(PAC) directed the two officials to appear before it on Thursday, October 22, to provide a definite repayment schedule and commit to a date for returning the funds.

The summons followed concerns over the withdrawal of money belonging to government agencies without clear repayment arrangements, prior notification, or established guidelines.

At a hearing in Abuja on Friday, October 16, the committee, presided over by its Deputy Chairman, Jeremiah Umaru, questioned the practice of using funds belonging to one government institution to meet the financial obligations of another without agreed terms.

The lawmakers insisted that every borrowing arrangement must specify the conditions and timeline for repayment, even when the transaction involves two government institutions.

“For each borrowing, there should be terms and conditions attached. We want to know what your plan is,” the committee said.

Umaru said the committee wanted both principal officials to appear personally and agree on when the government would repay the outstanding amount.

“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 expressed concern that withholding funds meant for basic education could disrupt UBEC’s programmes across the country.

They warned that states and federal constituencies relying on the commission’s interventions could suffer if the agency lacked adequate funds to discharge its statutory responsibilities.

The committee also questioned reports that the government deducts as much as 50 per cent of some agencies’ revenues monthly or quarterly without a clearly established regulatory framework.

Members said the deductions had weakened the affected agencies’ ability 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,” a committee member said.

Responding on behalf of the Accountant-General, a deputy director in the office, Ezeoke Christopher, acknowledged the borrowings and described them as internal financial arrangements to address funding shortfalls and meet statutory obligations.

He explained that the arrangements partly reflected the pressure to meet personnel costs, which reportedly exceed N1tn monthly.

The Accountant-General’s office also told the committee that it had made efforts to refund as much as N90bn, although more than N70bn remained outstanding.

However, the explanations from Christopher and the Ministry of Finance’s Permanent Secretary, Muhammed Danjuma, did not satisfy the lawmakers.

The committee maintained that the Finance Minister and the Accountant-General must personally explain the outstanding debt and provide a firm repayment timetable.

It also stressed that financial arrangements between government institutions must not undermine agencies that depend on predictable access to public funds to deliver their statutory responsibilities.

Meanwhile, UBEC Executive Secretary, Olajumoke 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 listed Imo, Ogun, Anambra, Lagos, Kwara and Katsina among the states with outstanding issues relating to counterpart funding. However, he noted that many states were taking steps to meet the requirements.

Akinyemi also disclosed that the National Assembly was considering amendments to the Universal Basic Education Act to improve the utilisation of funds allocated to basic education.

Under the proposed amendment, UBEC would gain the power to redeploy funds that states fail to access after two years.

The proposal seeks to prevent education funds from remaining idle indefinitely when eligible states fail to meet the conditions for accessing them.

The committee subsequently resolved that Oyedele, Ogunjimi and Akinyemi must appear in person on October 22 to address the outstanding repayment and related funding concerns.