Cash transfer: How missing N534.5m denied 7,127 Katsina girls basic education

Amina Mohammadu, a peasant farmer is a mother of four from Daba town in Kaita Local Government Area (LGA) of Katsina state. The mother has two girls who are of basic school age but are not in school as she can’t afford to support their education.

Mrs Mohammadu said her co-wives also have school-age girls who are out of school.

There are more parents in other communities in the state who said they have out-of-school girls helping them in trading and farm work because they can’t afford the school enrolment fees.

This is coming, years after the intervention of the Katsina State Government, its local government areas (LGAs) and the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) through a N900 million Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme to assist parents enrol their school-age girls.

The CCT programme is in line with the nine year Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act of 2004. The programme seeks to eradicate illiteracy, ignorance and poverty as well as stimulate and accelerate national development.

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), an agency that coordinates all aspects of the UBE programme states on its website that the education of the girl-child and other disadvantaged groups is being given greater attention than ever before.

How cash transfer scheme began in Katsina

The CCT is an international welfare programme that originated in Latin America and is operating in about 30 countries.

It is meant to offer cash assistance to less privileged individuals especially the rural poor to increase the enrolment of girls aged six and 15 years in schools and their retention until graduation, the Department of Girl Child Education and Child Development in the Katsina State Ministry of Education said.

The state and the UNICEF initiated the scheme in September 2009 but the pact to kick-start it was signed in November 2010 to last for three years across nine LGAs chosen from the 34 LGAs in the state.

An internal audit committee document obtained by our reporter from the state’s Department of Girl Child Education and Child Development indicates that 125 public primary schools were involved in the programme with 9,059 girls receiving N5,000 per term.

The state, LGAs and UNICEF paid a total of N899 million for the programme from which N364.2m was spent, the investigative document revealed.

The Department also disclosed that a large chunk of N534.58m was unaccounted for after the programme ended and had recommended that it should be refunded by the officials who handled the pilot phase.

With the unaccounted fund of N534.58m, about 7,127 other girls have been denied the opportunity of benefitting from the programme.

According to the breakdown, in 2011, the sum of N129.3m was received by the handlers from which N75.5m was disbursed; another N53.8m was unaccounted for, the current audit document showed.

This means that 717 girls would have got N5,000 for every term in the 15 terms within a five year period, just with the 2011 unaccounted fund.

For 2012, the government and UNICEF paid N174.7m but N64.6m was spent while N110m was unaccounted for. Another 1,468 girls would have benefitted every term for another five year period.

About 1,067 girls again would have got N5,000 every term for five years from the N80.02m unaccounted fund in 2013 as the handlers got N191m for the process but spent only N111m.

In the 2014 being the last year for the pilot programme, N257.8m was received from which N113m was spent. However N144.6m was not accounted for and that would have taken care of the enrolment needs of 1,928 girls for the five year period of the duration of the scheme.

The document revealed that the programme monitoring for the 11th and 12th cash transfer ended in December 2014 gulping N56m. However, another N146m was collected from the LGAs’ joint account in March 2015 which was neither spent nor accounted for.

This fund could have trained another 1,947 girls through a five year period, as they would have received N5,000 every term, the Daily Trust on Sunday analysis indicated.

CCT: More parents say they never benefitted

A compendium of former Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema published in 2013 by the Nigerian Union of journalists (NUJ) said the number of girls’ enrolment in primary schools increased to 80 per cent during the programme.

However, many parents and teachers shared their experiences on the programme with our reporter who visited some of the benefitting communities within the state recently.

Many of them lamented that their school-age girls never benefitted from the scheme despite the acclaimed success of the programme.

In Kaita LGA which was designated for the scheme, a cross section of women including Mrs Mohammadu and her co-wives told this paper that they never benefited from the scheme. They heard about it, waited eagerly, but it never got to them.

Another housewife in Daba town, Amina Abdullahi said none of  her two daughters  benefitted from the programme.  “We were aware that such programme was going on but it was not given to us,” Amina said.

This was also the comment of some other residents in Daba town. Many other mothers across some other communities who spoke to the Daily Trust on Sunday mentioned the same issue of being aware of the programme but hardly benefited from the scheme.

The resultant effect of these mothers not being a beneficiary of the programme,  is the many school-age girls loitering around at home with many more  engaged in hawking food items in the state.

At Yandaki town of the state where it was claimed many mothers benefitted, there was hardly anyone who said she got the cash transfer during the period.

A teacher, Malam Hussaini Abubakar in the community said people there did not benefit from the scheme but was aware of the scheme, and that the town was captured in the list of benefiting communities.

For Mrs Aisha Mohammed, her girls have not been to school because she could not also afford to cater for them. “I am aware of the programme but I did not get any money for my daughters’ school expenses,” she noted.

Another teacher in the town, Malam Mohammed said his school is not a beneficiary of the programme.  “At that period, people were gathered for the monitoring and at the end no one benefitted from the CCT programme,” he said.

One of the community chiefs in Daba town said, “We know that the programme was going on then and that the school management and some government officials decided who should benefit.”

Some parents benefitted

The Daily Trust on Sunday established that few people benefitted from the scheme in some communities. For instance, in Masaki community, Mrs Harira Samaila said she benefitted because her late husband was the community school guard.

“ I received N10,000 twice and N5,000 once in one year of the programme but that was over three years ago,” Harira who spoke in Hausa said.

One of the daughters who benefitted has been married off after her father’s death while the other daughter is still in school but that she needed assistance to keep supporting the child, the widow said.

The woman also said most children in the community who were fortunate to benefit dropped out immediately the programme stopped.

Still in Masaki community, Hindatu and Gambo are the two daughters of Mrs Adi Sani that benefitted from the scheme. While Hindatu said she is Primary five now, Gambo is in Primary four.

“I received N10,000 after every term for two years and I used it to sew uniform and buy other school materials, then I put the rest into a food stuff business,” Mrs Sani.

The mother in her early 30s wants the scheme revived to put more girls through primary school and to help women improve their livelihoods.

At Gande community, Tukur Hashimu who teaches at the primary school said many pupils benefitted in his school. “Before the programme, there were few children in the school but because of the CCT, the school has about 386 female pupils. It really helped as I have not seen any other programme that raised enrollment like the CCT,” he noted.

Another primary school teacher, Malam Dale Hassan in Leme community said his school also benefitted from the programme. “The programme was rewarding as it raised the number of girls in schools and should be brought back,” he said.

Avoiding the pitfalls in Katsina

Many persons in the various communities where our reporters visited stated some of the reasons they felt led to the failure of the pilot scheme.

A source at the State’s Ministry of Education said the selection of the beneficiaries was done by the school management and not even at the community level.

The officer also disclosed that the Department of the Girl Child Education was indicted by a panel which probed the operations of the programme. He added that the EFCC has been called in to look at the books.

He said the Department is being indicted for the misappropriation of the sum of N10.1bn and that a Special Assistant to the governor has appeared before the EFCC on one occasion.

A community leader in Daba who spoke on condition of anonymity,  said  the Girl Enhancement Programme (GEP) going on in the state is more impactful not only because of the amount being given out to the families but also because most women have received the money.

However, Amina Abdullahi of the same community has a different view: “Even the one they are doing now, we are not given anything but they came to make enquiries; we are still expecting them.”

What officials say on the previous scheme

When contacted, Hajiya Binta Abba who is the Special Assistant to Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state said in the new scheme, the selection process is done through the community leaders and not through the schools.

“In the past scheme, the selection process was through school officials and they could have done it anyhow. We are using local government officials who will meet with community leaders to identify the poorest families who have girls that needed to be enrolled,” Binta said.

UNICEF angle

The Specialist, Communications and External Relations, Mr Geoffrey Njoku said the agency provided the technical assistant with its counterpart funding from the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DfID).

Mr Njoku said the fund was meant to cover many states including Katsina, Niger and Sokoto states and that the programme is on-going. On how the programme was monitored, he simply said: “We have consultants that are working with us on that.”

Confirming the scheme’s continuity under the present administration, the Acting Director of Planning & Research at the Department of Girl Child Education in the state, Mr Abubakar Ibrahim said the previous scheme was the pilot and that it is continuing in a better way.

He added: “When the new regime came, they adopted it because of the success potential in increasing the enrolment of the girl-child in school.”

Mr Ibrahim also confirmed that due to the huge unaccounted spending in the pilot phase, there is a case before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the alleged misappropriations. “The issue is still with the EFCC and that means there is an element of corruption,” he said.

Amina Mohammadu, a peasant farmer is a mother of four from Daba town in Kaita Local Government Area (LGA) of Katsina state. The mother has two girls who are of basic school age but are not in school as she can’t afford to support their education.

Mrs Mohammadu said her co-wives also have school-age girls who are out of school.

There are more parents in other communities in the state who said they had out-of-school girls helping them in trading and farm work because they can’t afford the school enrolment fees.

This is coming, years after the intervention of the Katsina State Government, its Local Government Areas (LGAs) and the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) through a N900 million Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme to assist parents enrol their school-age girls.

The CCT programme is in line with the nine year Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act of 2004. The programme seeks to eradicate illiteracy, ignorance and poverty as well as stimulate and accelerate national development.

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), an agency that coordinates all aspects of the UBE programme states on its website that the education of the girl-child and other disadvantaged groups is being given greater attention than ever before.

This story is sponsored by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, supported by MacArthur Foundation