The World Bank has announced the approval of $961 million to support the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Kaduna State Economic Transformation Program in order to achieve the nation’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017-2020.
The bank, in a statement signed by the banks Senior Communication Officer, Mrs. Olufunke Olufon said the support, described as the Program-for-Results operations is expected to foster inclusion, improve access to education especially among girls and reduce the number of out-of-school children by one third before 2022.
According to the bank, the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) Program-for-Results is a $611 million credit aimed to bring out-of-school children into the classroom, improve literacy, and strengthen accountability for results in basic education while the Kaduna state economic transformation program for results is a $350 million credit, targeted to enhance private sector investment in the state through improved business environment, effective budget planning, execution and fiscal accountability.
World Bank Country Director, Rachid Benmessaoud said: “Investing in human capital and creating economic opportunities for all are key areas of focus to achieve more inclusive and private-sector led growth. These two operations support the government’s economic and growth recovery plan and will help Nigeria achieve sustainable and measurable results.”
The statement stated that about 13.2 million school-age children dropped out of school in 2013, with overwhelming majority from the North. She described the region as such with highest rate of out-of-school children, mainly girls in rural areas and poor families.
The statement read: “Kaduna State has taken a number of reform actions to improve its economic performance and social outcomes and sustain this reform effort.
“Both operations implement results-based financing, whereby disbursement of funds is linked to the achievement of tangible, verifiable results. As a first phase for addressing out-of-school children in Nigeria, BESDA aims to help enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal Universal Basic Education (UBE) Program through incentivizing results at the state level and thereby reduce the number of out-of-school children by roughly one third by 2022.
“The Kaduna State operation will support the State’s ambitious reform efforts to increase both private investments for job creation and revenue generation. It will also strengthen budget performance and fiscal accountability through citizen engagement.” Read more here.