UNITED NATIONS GIRLS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

15 September 2006 - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno have signed a 700 million naira (about 5.4 million U.S. dollars) project implementation agreement to address the problem of girl education in the next five years.

At the signing ceremony on Wednesday, Borno State Governor Ali Sheriff said the government would provide 68 million naira (about 531,000 dollars) to fund the project.

Sheriff said the state administration was prepared to partner with any agency that would assist it in improving the education sector.

The governor said the state authorities had spent more than one billion naira (about 7.8 million dollars) on the improvement of primary education since 2003 and had contributed more than 500 million naira (about 3.9 million dollars) to the State Primary Education Board.

He added that the state administration would strive to improve girl education, explaining that the education of female children was a great asset for the development of any society.

Mohammed Jalloh, assistant country representative of UNICEF Field Office in the state capital Bauchi, said the signing of the pact was the "right step toward achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education."

Jalloh said the UNICEF had also trained 500 primary school teachers in the state and urged the state to create an appropriate platform for the development of children.

Source: Xinhua