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24, 252 girls benefit from UNICEF’s Cash Transfer in Niger, Sokoto

No fewer than 24, 252 girls have benefited from the 2015/2016 Girls Education Project (GEP3) Cash Transfer Programme of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Niger and Sokoto States.

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No fewer than 24, 252 girls have benefited from the 2015/2016 Girls Education Project (GEP3) Cash Transfer Programme of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Niger and Sokoto States.

UNICEF’s Media and External Relation Officer, Kaduna Filed Office, Malam Rabiu Musa, disclosed this in Kaduna on Wednesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Musa explained that the beneficiaries, between the ages of six and 15, were selected from the poorest of the poor families in the two states.

He said each of them received N5, 000 through their care-givers to purchase school uniforms, sandals and other school materials.

The official said that the grant was meant to ease one of the major constraints of out-of-school girls in northern Nigeria.

He said that UNICEF had disbursed N120.26 million under the project, of which 12, 911 girls received a total of N64,555,000 in Niger, and 11, 341 girls shared N55,705,000 in Sokoto.

Musa pointed out that 65 per cent of the over 10 million out-of- school children in Nigeria, mostly from the northern region, were girls.

He added that UNICEF with funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) initiated the cash transfer project to turn around the situation.

He said that the programme targets the enrolment of one million girls into schools in northern Nigeria by 2020.

“The programme was specifically designed as a strategic platform to provide equal opportunities to both boys and girls, with much emphasis on the girl child.

“The essence is to promote and institutionalise equity aimed at encouraging parents, communities to enrol their wards in schools, ensure retention and successful completion of their western education.

“The N120.26 million disbursed is for the first trench of the programme; the second and third disbursements would take effect before the end of 2016, “ he added.

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