By Modupe Gbadeyanka
About $500 million has been earmarked by the World Bank as grant to fund basic education in Nigeria for five years.
It was disclosed that only five states in the northern part of the country would benefit from the largesse.
This information was made known in a statement issued by the Information Officer of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Mrs Helen Okoro.
Dr Olatunde Adekola was credited to have revealed this to UBEC and he is the Head, World Bank International Reconstruction and Development team.
According to statement, the World Bank explained that the fund was for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), established to improve access to quality education at the basic level in Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Sokoto and Katsina States.
Mrs Okoro said in the statement that, “Five hundred million dollars has been set aside as Global Partnership for Education (GPE)/ Nigerian Partnership for Education Project (NIPEP) to fund education in the five beneficiary states of Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto.”
According to her, Dr Adekola commended the Federal Government for the NIPEP project, adding that it was the first time government was focusing on strategies aimed at moving the basic education sub-sector forward.
She said the $2.5 billion dollars credit that the Federal Government requested from the World Bank to finance the 2016 budget could only be released after fulfilling certain conditions.
Modupe Gbadeyanka