The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, and the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Basic Education Board, OyoSUBEB, is set to commence the implementation of 217 projects in Oyo State.
The Executive Chairman of OyoSUBEB, Dr. Nureni Aderemi Adeniran, stated this on Friday at an official meeting with successful bidders for the 2019 UBEC/SUBEB Intervention Projects, held at the Board’s premises in Ibadan.
In all, the Oyo State government and UBEC are rolling out construction of 58 blocks of classrooms; 10 perimeter fences; renovation of 62 blocks of classrooms; and 40 lots of supply of furniture.
Others are drilling of 44 boreholes and procurement of 3 lots of sports equipment/facilities.
At the meeting, Dr. Adeniran read the riot act to the contractors, urging them to abide by the laid down standard for project execution and deliver high standard projects in the state.
Noting that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and some technical issues, the Board shifted the date for its bid opening exercise twice, which eventually came up on October 8, 2020, Adeniran thanked the executive governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde, for the prompt payment of counterpart fund from the state government, which gave the state an edge to quickly draw the 2019 funds from UBEC.
He said, “It is worthy of note that today’s gathering would not have come up without the pro-activeness of the state government, through the prompt release of counterpart fund amounting to the sum of N1,519,884,078.86, to complement the matching grant of equal amount released by the Federal Government through UBEC, for the implementation of the 2019 FGN-UBEC/SUBEB Intervention Projects.”
Dr. Adeniran informed the gathering that the 2018 FGN-UBEC/SUBEB Intervention Projects awarded in January 2020 have reached an advanced stage, adding, “About 98 per cent of the projects have been delivered to the benefitting schools; and these projects have added greater value to the academic activities in the schools.”
Urging the contractors not to renege on the high standard set by the state government, as the present administration has zero tolerance for non-performance, the OyoSUBEB boss said that the state government has set a time frame for the categories of projects in the state; urging them to be upright and efficient in the execution of the projects.
He added, “Construction of model schools must be delivered in 24 weeks; construction of block of classrooms must be delivered in 16 weeks; while construction of ECCDE Pilot Centres; and block of three and four classrooms must be ready in 12 weeks.”
Also, the time-frame for construction of perimeter fence is four weeks; renovation of blocks of classrooms is eight weeks; sinking of borehole is two weeks; procurement of furniture is six weeks, while procurement of sport equipment/facilities is two weeks.
He therefore said the state government expects that the contractors will adhere strictly to the time frame for each of the categories of projects, adding sternly that the time-frame is not negotiable.
