The World Bank said it is ready to lend Nigeria $500 million under its “Better Education-For-All (BEDA)” project to help the country address the issue of non-schooling children. This was declared by the Bank’s senior education specialist, Olatunde Adekola (photo), during a visit to Sokoto’s State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, last Sunday.

“The project will be results oriented, ensure that children are able to read and write. This is to help the government to strengthen its service delivery mechanisms to children, girls, women and other vulnerable groups. Most of the challenges in the country are education related and the five-year project is aimed at reversing the ugly trend,” Adekola explained.

According to him, the BEDA project would focus on the northern parts of Nigeria, specifically to bolster girl-child education. Moreover, the official, on behalf of the Bretton Woods institution, welcomed the efforts of the Sokoto state in regards to education. He said the State allocated about 27% of its annual budget to the sector in 2016 and 2017.

Commenting on the partnership between the state and the World Bank, Tambuwal declared: “We will continue to honor our own side of commitments to such agreements in terms of finances and other issues. We have begun the process of creating an agency to be in charge of the education of the girl-child. We will ensure the effective utilization of the funds.”

Anita Fatunji