By Adedapo Adesanya
Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has extended a grant of $125 million to Nigeria to support the development of basic education in Oyo, Adamawa and Katsina states.
This was revealed in Abuja on Friday when the Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, received a delegation from the GPE.
In a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Media and Publicity, Mr Ben Bem Goong, it was disclosed that the aim of the grant handled through the Nigeria’s Partnership for Education Project (NIPEP) was to improve access and quality of basic education in the country, with particular focus on the girl-child.
This is not the first time the country is getting such grant. Mr Adamu Adamu acknowledged that the Nigerian government received a grant of $100 million from the funding agent in 2015 to help improve the quality of education in some states in the North-western region of the country.
According to the Minister, the benefiting states, under the $100 million grant, were Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna and Sokoto states.
The states billed to benefit from the current grant are Oyo, Adamawa and Katsina states.
The minister, who stated that preparations were ongoing to access the grant before its deadline of June 2020, expressed delight at the opportunity to strengthen the country’s drive to improve its educational standard.
On the part of the GPE, led by the head of the delegation, Mr Sven Baeten, the visit was necessitated by his organisation’s interest in the educational development of the country.
In addition to the $125 million, Mr Baeten disclosed that there was another $20 million grant to be made available to countries with education emergency issues, adding, however, that the requirements for accessing the grants such as institutional arrangements with clear cut checks and balances among others, must be fulfilled before Nigeria can access its own share.
The leader of the organisation further expressed the willingness of his organisation to help Nigeria access the grant.
He then urged the federal government to step up efforts to access the grants as there are other countries with similar challenges.
Dipo Olowookere