The Global Partnership on Education (GPE) has given grant of $100 million to five northern states to shore up basic education. The benefiting states include Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and Sokoto states.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu disclosed that the money would be used to improve basic education, with emphasis on the girl-child in the five focal states. He revealed this during the launch, adding that the states were targeted because of the high number of out-of-school children in the zone.
Represented by the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, Adamu , said, “The North-West geo-political zone has the highest number of out-of-school children even before the activities of insurgents compounded the problem with the spillover from the North-East.”
However, he urged the benefiting states to utilise the fund transparently in line with the anti-corruption stance of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. He also reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to provide quality education to all children across the country.
The World Bank Specialist in Nigeria, Tunde Adekola, remarked that the GPE, which was put in place in 2002 by member states of the United Nations, channels donations made by international bodies and philanthropists to support educational development.
Adekola further said the World Bank is saddled with the responsibility of seeing to the success of the GPE intervention in the five focal states in Nigeria through NIPEP, adding that the programme is expected to run for four years.
Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal pledged that enabling environment would be provided for the utilisation of the grants to achieve the desired results.
