FG allocates ₦15billion to fund Safe Schools Initiative

According to the Federal Government, a total of $15 billion has been set aside to finance the Safe Schools Initiative through 2023.

Halima Illiya Ibrahim, the national coordinator of the Safe Schools Initiative, made this statement at a news conference held in Abuja.

According to Ibrahim, the program aimed to pave the road for future school assault prevention while allowing students afflicted by war and insecurity to continue their education without interruption.

She explained that the previous Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, had approved the creation of the Financing Safe Schools Secretariat/Unit for planning and coordinating Safe Schools activities in the Ministry in order to move forward in fulfilling the various commitments to protect Schools and Children from new attacks.

She claimed that the task of creating a national plan on financing safe schools was assigned to a technical committee or technical working group made up of key organizations, including the Ministry of Education, the Nigerian Governor’s Forum (NGF), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Department of State Security Service (DSS), and Defense Headquarters.

With a total investment of 144.86 billion in December 2022, Ibrahim said, the committees created a strategy that will be implemented between 2023 and 2026.

In 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, the plan calls for allocating 32.58 billion, 36.98 billion, 37.15 billion, and 38.03 billion respectively.

The federal, state, and local governments, government interventionists, agencies, international and multilateral institutions, corporations and philanthropists, donors, partners, and other sources of money, she continued, are provided for in the annual budget.

Ibrahim reaffirmed that the implementation strategy’s medium-term goal is to reach 50% of the Public Schools that are the most at-risk between 2023 and 2026.

She also mentioned that the national plan’s implementation has begun in 48 schools and 18 high-risk states, with the intention of spreading to all 50 states by 2024.

Ibrahim added that the strategy aims to do the following, among other things: building and integrating host communities that are security-resilient in order to protect education.

According to Ebenezer Leo, the head of education and governor’s forum representative for Nigeria, protecting schools is a shared responsibility for everyone, and the governor’s forum is very interested in this issue.

Leo went on to say that all parties involved, including states and local governments, were totally dedicated to protecting schools and children.

Additionally, he guaranteed that the freed funds would be used effectively and made a commitment that the committee would make significant progress before the year was out.