Governors under the Nigerian Governors' Forum (NGF) have made a significant commitment to education funding by pledging to allocate at least 15% of their annual budgets to the education sector. This announcement was made during the inaugural International Conference on Girl Child Education held in Abuja on October 10-11, 2024.
The Chairman of the NGF and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, emphasized the importance of this funding in addressing the challenges faced by school children. Vice President Kashim Shettima warned that the high number of out-of-school children in Nigeria poses dire consequences for the nation, highlighting that 25.6% of primary school-age children and 29.6% of secondary school-age children are not enrolled in school.
The governors stressed that investing in education is a necessity for the future of Nigerian children. The funding commitment aims to address critical barriers affecting girls’ access to quality education, including poverty and early marriage. The NGF also launched the Girl Child Education Volunteers’ Advocates (GICEVA) initiative, which will enlist over 774,000 volunteers from local governments to promote girl child education.
In addition to the budget allocation, the Federal Government announced plans to start initiatives to rescue out-of-school children from the streets beginning on October 15, 2024. The Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, stated that this initiative will help the government reach out to the families of these children to ensure they receive quality education.
The conference also included presentations on various educational strategies and a panel discussion, with a focus on primary school enrollment campaigns and teacher capacity training to decrease the number of out-of-school children.
