The Federal Government on Wednesday announced that it had earmarked a total of N15 billion to fund the implementation of Financing Safe Schools Initiative this year.
The Ministry of Information and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning made this disclosure after a press briefing by the National Coordinator on Safe Schools Initiative of the ministry, Halima Ibrahim, in Abuja.
The Safe schools initiative aims to enable Children affected by conflicts and insecurity to continue with their education unhindered
The Coordinator revealed that funds were for the implementation of Financing Safe Schools for 2023.
According to her, to achieve progress in achieving the various commitments to protect Schools and Children from further attacks, the immediate past Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs. (Dr.) Zainab Ahmed, approved the setting up of the Financing Safe Schools Secretariat/Unit for planning and coordinating Safe Schools activities in the Ministry.
Ibrahim stated: “A Technical Committee or Technical Working Group which constituted critical agencies, Ministry of Education, Nigerian Governor’s Forum (NGF), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Department of State Security Service (DSS) and Defense Headquarters, were saddled with the responsibility to develop a National Plan on Financing Safe Schools, and consequently, in December 2022, developed a plan, which was launched, which will be implemented between 2023 – 2026 with a total investment size of N144.86 billion.
“The plan proposes N32.58 billion in 2023, N36.98 billion in 2024, N37.15 billion in 2025 and N38.03 billion in 2026 respectively” she added
On the funding of the project, the Coordinator explained that the Federal Government planned to fund the initiative through annual budgetary provisions from Federal, State, and Local Governments, government interventionists, agencies, foreign and multilateral institutions, businesses and philanthropists, donors partners, among others.
She stated that the implementation strategy “aims to cover 50% of the most risk Public Schools over the medium term 2023 – 2026, disclosing that, the implementation of the National Plan has kick-started with Eighteen (18) high-risk States and Forty-eight (48) Schools, hoping that it will spread across States by 2024.
Ibrahim explained that initiative had some key focal areas including strengthening the defection, deference, and response capabilities of the security agents; equipping the school security, response, and coordination centers in Abuja and States respectively; and regular engagements and policy advocacy with the Nigerian public and key government officials on implementation of National Plan.
