23,000 pupils get UNICEF cash assistance

A statement from the UNICEF, signed by the Fund’s communication specialist, Geoffrey Njoku said the money was meant for the purchase of textbooks and settling of other school-related costs for the beneficiaries.The gesture was aimed at encouraging parents to send their daughters to schools, the statement said.Launching the programme in Wurno Local Government Area, Sokoto […]

A statement from the UNICEF, signed by the Fund’s communication specialist, Geoffrey Njoku said the money was meant for the purchase of textbooks and settling of other school-related costs for the beneficiaries.
The gesture was aimed at encouraging parents to send their daughters to schools, the statement said.
Launching the programme in Wurno Local Government Area, Sokoto State, several mothers received a first quarter payment of 5,000 naira (US $ 31) for each daughter aged 6 to 15, the first payment of an annual 20,000 naira.
Sokoto State Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Bello Yusuf Danchadi, who represented Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko said the cash disbursement will continue every quarter for the next two years.
He said: “Getting girls to enrol, and remain in school is particularly important in a country where 10.5 million children are out of school, 60 per cent of them in the north, and mostly girls.”
Mr Utpal Moitra, head of the UNICEF office for North-central and North-west Nigeria said an educated girl will have a better life and healthier children and that every additional year of schooling further reduces the probability of child mortality.
He said the programme which is jointly implemented by the Nigerian government and UNICEF and funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) would be expected to be expanded to other states.