School enrollment: Zamfara, UNICEF begin cash transfer to 10,000 pupils

The Zamfara state government in partnership with the United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has begun mobilisation through the disbursement of educational grants to over 10,000 children.

Flagging off the programme at Maradun town, the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, said at least 3,449 benefiting pupils were targeted for the scheme as a first cohort across three selected pilot local government areas of Bukkuyum, Maradun and Zurmi.

He said under the arrangement, each beneficiary would receive the sum of N24, 000 annually as a grant to support the children of poor backgrounds to take care of basic requirements for conducive learning in schools.

“The cash transfer scheme is intended to address the problem of children from poor background to enable them to have good uniforms, books, pencils, biros and other needs for conducive learning,” he said.

Also speaking, the UNICEF consultant in charge of access to education, Ahmad Hashim, lauded the state government for its “unflinching support” to UNICEF, stressing that the “UNICEF will continue to support the state in its quest to transform its education sector.”

According to him, UNICEF plans to spend over N100 million for the payment in all the three cohorts aside from other intervention done before now, and that the Fund “is ready to do more in this regard.”

Earlier, the project implementation unit coordinator, Hajia Maryam Yahaya Shantali, expressed happiness over the support and cooperation being enjoyed by her unit from the chairman ZSUBEB, urging him to maintain the tempo.

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