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Nationwide school audits were this year expected to cover over 80 percent of the 8 179 schools in the country, of which 5 805 are primary schools, while 2 374 are secondary schools. While the exercise has so far been producing results and unearthing massive irregularities and abuse of funds at Government school institutions, there are reports that schools are being asked to fund the exercise.

The Nigerian Minister of State for Education has discharged bribery allegations of 40 per cent (N6.8bn) kick-back from 4th quarter allocation of 104 Unity Colleges from principals of schools. The Minister claimed that the report was baseless and false.

Education agency officials denied a graft allegation in the distribution of funds from the central government and the city administration under the School Operational Aids and Education Operational Aids schemes.

Funds allocated for teaching and public services are often embezzled in Sub-Saharan Africa by corrupt officers, to the detriment of development.

Four days of rioting by secondary school students in Libreville last week highlighted a growing frustration with education cutbacks. Corruption and mismanagement of existing resources have contributed to declining standards in public services. The European Union and the Islamic Development Bank had allocated funds for the upkeep of the free school bus service. A newspaper accused the government of reallocating this cash to other areas such as election campaigning.

Contractors hired to build schools in Mbale district have accused primary school management committees of demanding bribes before releasing funds under the school facilitation grant programme.