The World bank has approved a fresh $700,000,000 (₦535,617,194,000.00) loan for Nigeria to bolster education for teenage girls’ learning and empowerment.
This was disclosed in a statement published on Friday, September 22, 2023, by the world bank country director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri.
The loan is to provide additional funds for an ongoing project themed ‘The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment’.
The statement read, “The World Bank approved additional financing of $700m (₦535,617,194,000.00) for Nigeria to scale up the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment programme whose goal is to improve secondary education opportunities among girls in targeted states.
“The additional financing will scale up project activities from the current seven states to eleven additional states and increase the targeted beneficiaries to include out-of-school girls, those who are married, and those who have disabilities”, the statement read.
It was noted that Nigeria had over 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 out of school children with many of them in Northern Nigeria.
They further emphasized that an estimated number of 1,000,000 children are affected by insecurity around schools in 2020-2021.
“In the seven Agile programme implementing states, Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Plateau – the number of girls in secondary schools has increased from about 900,000 to over 1.600,000.
“Under the programme, over 5,000 classrooms have been renovated and over 250,000 eligible girls have received scholarships.
“The Agile programme has supported construction and rehabilitation of WASH facilities in secondary schools and the installation of computers and solar panels which make attending school more convenient and conducive for both girls and boys. Life skills, systems strengthening, and advocacy are other key aspects of the program which address social norms impeding girls’ education”, the statement added.
“Closing the gender gaps in economic empowerment by ensuring girls have access to education and skills is key for Nigeria’s development and economic prosperity.
“Nigeria’s working population will soon be one of the youngest and largest around the world, which means that investing in adolescent girls is imperative when addressing overall economic prospects and growth.”
The statement noted that aside from the girls who are beneficiaries from the financing, others included over 15,000,000 students and beneficiaries, such as teachers, administrators, families, communities and staff in existing and newly constructed schools.
It added that the new fund would push the project to 18 states and help Nigeria to achieve better education and health outcomes for girls.
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