by S’ola Filani

“We want to tell parents: ‘If you send a girl to secondary school, you will get more money later’. The longer she attends school, the greater the economic benefits”

As part of promoting the girl child education in the Northern Nigeria, a UNICEF-supported programme, was inaugurated in Sokoto on Monday, and aimed at sponsoring about 23,000 girls to school.

The programme  aims at encouraging parents to send their daughters to school.

The Head of UNICEF Office for North-Central and North-West, Utpal Moitra, 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. An educated girl will have a better life, as will her family. We know that educated girls will have healthier children. Every additional year of schooling further reduces the probability of child mortality.

“In all, 23,000 girls will benefit from the cash transfer programme in the northern states of Sokoto and Niger this year and as many as 50,000 the next year. The programme is expected to expand and also be replicated in other states.

“There is still resistance to sending children to school in northern Nigeria, because of a low perception of the value of education, particularly for girls, but also because many parents just can’t afford to send their children to school.”

The project is jointly implemented by the Federal Government and UNICEF, and is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

Sola