NGO applauds World Bank’s intervention in schools

Connected Development (CODE) has applauded the World Bank’s $611m (N221bn) support to the federal government to get out-of-school children into classrooms all over the country, through the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme.
The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said over one million children in North-eastern Nigeria lack basic education due to the Boko Haram insurgency, increasing the total number of out-of-school children from 8.7 million as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Reacting to the news, CODE’s Chief Executive Officer Hamzat Lawal said, “It is exciting to read that the World Bank is investing in strengthening Nigeria’s education sector to enable her meet, sustainable development goals on universal basic education for all — amongst other targets; especially in northern Nigeria where most of the out-of-school children reside”.
Mr. Lawal however, reiterated the need for institutional strengthening for transparency, “particularly in providing salient information on how these funds are expended, so that citizens can hold government accountable; as well as ensure sustainable investments by elected governments to meet Nigeria’s education needs, especially basic education.” Through its “Follow the Money” model, CODE provides the marginalised and vulnerable communities with resources to amplify their voices with independence and integrity; as well as information that ushers social and economic development through online and offline platforms that close the feedback loop between citizens and the government to enhance social contracting and accountability.
Having tracked the implementation of N569.5m ($1.5m) Universal Basic Education (UBE) funding across 23 projects in 20 communities with the support of Kaduna state government, CODE has since commenced the tracking of N12bn UBE (2013-2016) funding for 597 projects across 18 local government areas in Ondo state.

 

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