FG Unveils N144.8bn Investment Plan to Finance Safe Schools

•Earmarks N15bn for 2023

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The federal government yesterday unveiled a N144.8 billion comprehensive investment plan to fund safe schools in the country.

The Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) was launched in 2014, in the aftermath of the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State.

The first component of SSI, a nationwide intervention programme designed to make the school environment safe for children and their teachers was activated that year with the transfer of 2,400 students from Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States to about 42 unity schools across the country, on full scholarships.

Unveiling the National Plan to finance the programme which suffered several flip-flops with attacks and kidnapping of students in many schools across the north during the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Coordinator, Financing Safe Schools Programme, Halima lliya lbrahim, disclosed that it would be implemented between 2023 and 2026.

According to the plan, the sum of N32.58 billion would be injected to finance safe schools in 2023, N36.98 billion in 2024, N37.15 billion in 2025, and N38.03 billion in 2026.

Ibrahim, disclosed that the government made a N15 billion commitment towards the programme for 2023.

The National Coordinator noted that the project funding was a collective commitment of participating stakeholders achieved through annual budgetary provisions from federal, state and local governments.

Others are government interventionist agencies, foreign governments and multilateral institutions, businesses and philanthropic donor patners, among others.

She said: “Looking at the implementation strategy, the plan aims to cover 50 per cent of the most at risk public schools over the medium term 2023-2026.The plan will focus on achieving the following milestones:

building and integrating security resilient host communities in the protection of education, strengthening the detection, deterrence, and response capabilities of the security agencies, equipping school security, response and coordination centres in Abuja and States respectively.”

Ibrahim further stated that regular engagements and policy advocacy with the Nigerian public and key government officials on the implementation of the national plan commenced in January 2023, with the flag-off of the National School Security and Coordination Centre by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp being the Lead agency for the protection of schools and government critical assets.

Nigerian public schools came under severe security attacks in 2014, from members of Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram. The country experienced her first major attacks on FGC Buni Yadi in Yobe State and in April same year, there was another attack on Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in Borno State where 276 girls were kidnapped.

To tame insecurity threats across schools, the  federal government launched the Safe Schools Initiative, designed to  enable children affected by conflict and insecurity to continue with their education unhindered.

On December 31, 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari formally signed “the Safe Schools Declaration Ratification Documents” which has been endorsed by 118 countries signaling Nigeria’s commitment to implementation.

This was followed by a High-Level Forum in April 2021, convened by the immediate past Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, in partnership with Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) on Financing Safe Schools in Nigeria, to chart a way forward in addressing attacks on education.

Between October 25 and 27, 2021, Nigeria hosted the Fourth International Conference on the Safe Schools Declaration in Abuja, which was aimed at galvanising the needed support for the Declaration and to review progress in achieving the various commitments to protect schools and children from further attacks.

During the engagements and many others, issues of financing safe schools were reccurring for stakeholders.

To address these concerns on a holistic and sustainable basis by providing funding mechanism, in January 2022, the immediate past Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed approved the setting up of the Financing Safe Schools Secretariat/Unit for planning and coordinating safe schools activities.

A technical Committee or Technical Working Group was constituted, members were drawn from critical agencies Ministry of Education, Nigerian Governors Forum, Nigerian Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Core, Department of States Services and Defence Headquarters saddle with the responsibility to develop a National Plan on Financing Safe School.

Subsequently, a National Plan on Financing Safe Schools was developed and launched in December, 2022.