By Ahmed Rufa’I, Dutse
The European Union (EU) has approved £35 million to address the issue of out-of-school children in nine local government areas across Jigawa, Kano, and Sokoto states.
The EU consortium lead and education adviser for PLAN Nigeria, Tobi Ransomed announced this at a project launch workshop held in Dutse.
Under the Accelerating Basic Education and Livelihood Opportunities for Children and Youth in North-Western Nigeria initiative, 417,661 out-of-school children are targeted to re-enroll in education.
The three-year project, implemented by Save the Children International, PLAN International, and DAG, will focus on ensuring literacy and educational access while indirectly benefiting over 12 million people.
Additionally, 60,000 of the enrolled children will receive livelihood support, and some will be awarded scholarships for further studies.
The program’s success relies on support from parents, community leaders, and government officials.
Also speaking the program manager/deputy consortium lead EU, Vandi Hyelladi called on the stakeholders including parents, traditional and religious leaders, government, Community organisations and media to cooperate and support the project to achieve the desired goals of reducing the number of out of schools children in the states.
While making his remarks, after the official commissioning of the program of activities, the Jigawa state governor Malam Umar Namadi, who was represented by his deputy, engineer Aminu Usman Gumel commended EU and other partners for choosing Jigawa state to implement the project.
He expressed gratitude to the EU, aligning the effort with his administration’s development agenda.