Federal Government sets aside N15Billion for child education

Federal Government sets aside N15Billion for child education

The Federal Government has set aside N15billion in the 2023 budget to secure school children following violent attacks and kidnapping of school children in various parts of the country.

The Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed while speaking at the training of safe school administrators in Abuja, confirmed this, adding that it was to ensure the security of the children who are still in school.

The minister who spoke through a representative at the ministry said the government had made a commitment of N15 billion in 2023 and had authorised agencies to release funds to that effect, The Sun reports.

“We have written to the agencies to give them the go-ahead to upload into the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) platform for the release of funding for effective implementation.

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“We had a national plan that was launched in December last year by the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning in collaboration with the Ministry of Education for the protection of schools in the country. This is the component of the national plan. We intend to train them so that they can domesticate it in their various locations. That’s the state” the minister said.

Declaring the programme open, the Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi noted that an estimated 75 per cent (according to the UNDP) of children are in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps without access to learning.

“To further worsen the situation, parents are scared to send their children to schools thereby contributing to the high rate of out – of school children in the country.”

The National Safe School Plan being financed by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning rolled out strategies for implementation assigning the NSCDC the role of the lead agency. This decision was taken cognizance of the lead fole of the corps in the protection of critical national assets and infrastructure inclusive of schools/educational institutions.

“It is worthy of mention that the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre (NSSRCC) is one of the critical components of the implementation strategy saddled with the responsibility of coordinating safety and security responses for schools and host communities in collaboration with all security agencies and other relevant stakeholders” she said.