How UNICEF Pays Parents In The North To Send Their Kids To School

The United Nations International Children Fund (UNICEF), last Thursday commenced payment to parents in the north, basically Niger and Sokoto states, to enable them to send their children to schools.

N193 million has been allocated to Niger State, while N50 million was allocated to the Sokoto state to boost girl-child enrolment in primary schools.

Each parent gets N5000 to removes financial barriers to children’s schooling

This was revealed by the Niger State Coordinator of CTP, Mr. Idris Arzika, at a UNICEF Interactive Media Dialogue in Sokoto.

According to Arzika, the programme covers 251 catchment communities in six local governments where a lot of out-of-school girls were identified and about N123,140,000 was disbursed to caregivers to fund the girls’ enrolment.

“Total enrolment in 72 GEP3-CTP targeted primary schools in the 6 focal LGAs increased by 28%, while female enrolment increased by 48.59% between 2013/2014 and 2014/2015.

“Similarly, the total enrolment in the 72 GEP3-CTP targeted primary schools increased by 17.26% while female enrolment increased by 31.92% between 2015/2016,” he said.

Meanwhile, The UNICEF Education Specialist in Nigeria, Azuka Menkiti, said the four-year Educate-A-Child (EAC) project is part of efforts to reduce out-of-school children population in the country.

Menkiti said the overall goal of EAC is to expand access to quality basic education for 501,749 out-of-school children by 2020 in Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states.

She disclosed that Zamfara and Kebbi states are currently enjoying full implementation of the four-year project which targets 31,044 beneficiaries in Kebbi State and 10,347 beneficiaries in Zamfara State.

“In Kebbi State, in the first year the programme runs in the local government areas (LGAs) of Danko-Wasagu, Suru and Maiyama and will be expanded to Argungu, Bagudo, Dandi, Gwandu, Koko-Besse and Shanga LGAs in the following years.

“The programme is specifically designed to address the poverty-related reasons preventing children to enroll and stay in school giving families an opportunity to cover direct and opportunity costs related to their children’s – especially girls’ – education,” she said.