Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State

The Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) says it will take over payment of salaries of primary school teachers from local government authorities from October.

The Executive Secretary of the SUBEB, Mr Yakubu Ahmed-Umbagari, made the disclosure in Lafia on Wednesday while receiving executive members of the Correspondents Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Ahmed-Umbagari said the state governor had directed that the responsibility of payment of primary school teachers in the state be returned to the board.

He said that a survey carried out by the board in March 2015 showed that 19,165 teaching and non-teaching staff were working in 1, 347 primary schools.

The executive secretary, however, said the number might have reduced due to retirements, deaths and transfer of service.

He also said that the state government had paid N4. 3 billion counterpart funds to the Universal Basic Education Board.

Ahmed-Umbagari said the board would soon start awarding contracts for construction of classrooms, procurement of school furniture, provision of instructional materials and intensive teachers’ development.

He also assured the people of the board’s readiness to partner with them and urged journalists to be objective in their reports.

Earlier, Sulieman Abubakar, the Chairman of the Correspondents Chapel in the state, said the visit was to familiarise themselves with the activities of the board and seek ways of partnering with it.

Abubakar urged the board to carry the chapel along in its activities in order to get adequate publicity.