News
By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
As a way of encouraging learning , the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF, and the Katsina State Government today launched a cash transfer programme to
encourage increase school enrollment for over 20,000 Out-of-School children in Katsina.
According to UNICEF, the cash transfer programme will provide access to learning for the beneficiaries and help reduce the number of 536,132 children currently out of school in Katsina State.
Also the cash transfer would help to improve the socio economic benefits if the children and their families.
Speaking at the launch of the programme in Mani the Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Maisari said,“The partnership between Katsina State Government and UNICEF has yielded many positive results, not just in the education sector, but in other sectors of the state.”
An elated Maisari said,”We are grateful to UNICEF and the Educate A Child (EAC) project for the funds. The Programme Implementation Unit for the cash transfer programme will monitor the programme closely and ensure that the beneficiaries make judicious use of the resources. ”
Through the cash transfer programme, a total of ₦332,832,000 will be disbursed to 20,802 out-of-school children (OOSC) and Almajiris in Kafur, Mani and Safana LGAs of Katsina State. The funds will be disbursed through 10,557 female parents/caregivers to increase school enrolment and attendance rates for boys and girls.
Each female parent/caregiver will receive N8,000 per tranche twice in 2022, amounting to N16,000.per beneficiary.
The cash transfer programme will also ensure that beneficiaries are enrolled and retained in any form of organized school, including Integrated Qur’anic Schools (IQS) and provided with literacy and numeracy skills linked to employability and livelihood schemes.
“We are thankful to our partners, the Educate A Child Project, for funds for the cash transfer programme in Katsina State. The take-off of the cash transfer programme provides the opportunity to take children off the streets back to the classrooms where every school age child should be.”
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins urged the Katsina State Government to continue to build on these interventions to ensure that every school age child is in school and learning.
Hawkins said, “UNICEF is excited that with this launch, we’ll be addressing the importpant issues of not just access to education, but quality of learning as we focus on literacy and numeracy skills to build the foundation for employability and livelihood skills.”
