The World Bank has continued to strategically support Nigeria’s Human Capital Development and Financial Facility. In its recent support, the World Bank has provided Nigeria with $114.3m COVID-19 recovery grant and $500m for Adolescent Girl Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE).
The $114.3m grant includes $100m credit from the International Development Association and $14.28m from the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility to prevent, detect and respond to the threat with a specific focus on state level response.
While confirming the disbursement of the fund, MrChaudhiri noted that various states in the country would receive grants from the Federal government through the COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Project (CoPREP).
The CoPREP initiative is expected to fund the operationalization of 37 Emergency Operations Centres; training of 30,000 healthcare workers in infection prevention and control; support for emergency prioritized water sanitation and hygiene activities; plus other specialized medical laboratory.
In its other strategic support, the World Bank is providing $500 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA), for the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE). The project’s goal is to improve secondary education opportunities among girls in targeted areas.
ShubhamChaudhiri, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria stated that adolescent girls in the country face many constraints in accessing and completing secondary education, especially in Northern Nigeria where the poor condition of infrastructure and lack of water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities make it difficult for girls to stay in school.
According to him ““There is no better investment to accelerate Nigeria’s human capital development than to significantly boost girls’ education; as the AGILE project will enable the country make progress in improving access and quality of education for girls, especially in Northern Nigeria,”
The AGILE project hopes to use the secondary school as a platform to empower girls through education, life skills, health education, negotiation skills, self-agency, and digital literacy skills.