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The World Bank has granted Nigeria a fresh loan of $700 million aimed at empowering and enhancing educational opportunities for adolescent girls. This initiative was disclosed in a statement posted on the World Bank’s official website on Friday.
The loan will provide additional funding for an ongoing project known as the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment. The expanded program will encompass eleven additional states, bringing the total number of participating states to eighteen. It will also include out-of-school girls, married girls, and those with disabilities as beneficiaries.
Nigeria faces significant challenges in educating its youth, with an estimated 12 million to 15 million children of school age currently out of school. The situation is particularly pronounced in Northern Nigeria. Additionally, heightened insecurity around schools in 2020-2021 affected approximately one million children.
In the seven states where the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment is currently implemented (Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Plateau), the number of girls attending secondary school has risen from around 900,000 to over 1.6 million. The program has also facilitated the renovation of more than 5,000 classrooms and provided scholarships to over 250,000 eligible girls. Furthermore, it has supported the construction and rehabilitation of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in secondary schools, as well as the installation of computers and solar panels to enhance the learning environment. The program also addresses social norms that hinder girls’ education through life skills development, system strengthening, and advocacy efforts.
Shubham Chaudhuri, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, emphasized the importance of investing in adolescent girls, stating that it is crucial for Nigeria’s development and economic prosperity, especially considering that Nigeria’s working-age population will soon be one of the largest globally.
In addition to the girls directly benefiting from the financing, the project will positively impact over 15 million students, teachers, administrators, families, communities, and staff in both existing and newly constructed schools. This initiative is expected to contribute to better education and health outcomes for girls in Nigeria.
Previously, approximately 300,000 poor female students’ parents and caregivers in six states (Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Plateau) received financial incentives of N10,000 per term to encourage school attendance. The funding was provided through the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Programme, with an additional N5,000 given to each girl’s parent upon program registration.
This latest loan is the third loan facility approved under the administration of Bola Tinubu, with previous loans supporting Nigeria’s power sector and women’s empowerment.
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