World Bank Backs Construction Of 28 Secondary Schools In Kogi

Kogi State government has commenced the construction of 28 junior and senior secondary schools across the state’s 21 local government areas under the World Bank-supported Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme.

The state commissioner for Education, Wemi Jones, disclosed this yesterday in Lokoja, during the opening of bids for the projects under the AGILE intervention.

Jones explained that AGILE is a World Bank intervention implemented through the Federal Ministry of Education to support adolescent girls aged 12 to 19.

According to him, the intervention was designed following research which identified critical challenges affecting the education of adolescent girls and seeks to support states with funding to address some of the challenges.

He said Kogi is among the 21 states in Nigeria currently benefiting from the World Bank intervention.

The commissioner explained that the opening of bids for the construction of the 28 schools constituted one of the major components of the seven-component AGILE programme.

He said the construction was particularly important because quality education could not be sustained without adequate and conducive learning environments.

Jones said the World Bank intervention would therefore assist the state in addressing the infrastructure deficit in secondary schools and in providing better learning spaces for students.

He disclosed that the AGILE programme has an overall funding envelope of between $48 million and $50 million for Kogi State, covering all seven components of the intervention.

The commissioner, however, noted that the funding was a loan and not a grant, adding that the state government had already commenced repayment of the facility.

He said the construction component would take the largest share of the total funding because of the scale of the school infrastructure projects being undertaken.

Jones said the construction of 28 schools across the 21 local government areas demonstrated the importance attached to the programme by both the World Bank and the Kogi State government.

Also speaking, the Kogi State Project Coordinator of AGILE, Ahmed Tijani Oricha, said the state government remained committed to providing quality education for its citizens.

Oricha said Kogi State had developed a peculiar prototype for its secondary schools, which had been incorporated into the design of the schools to be constructed under the AGILE programme.

He said the prototype was designed to meet the state’s requirements for modern secondary school infrastructure.

According to him, the state would strengthen its oversight mechanisms to ensure that contractors who emerge from the bidding process comply strictly with the approved specifications.

Oricha stressed that adherence to specifications was critical to ensuring that the projects delivered value and met the required quality standards.

He added that successful contractors would be required to sign indemnity instruments that would make them liable in the event of failure to deliver or deviation from the agreed terms of engagement.

The project coordinator said the construction works were expected to be completed within 12 to 14 months, subject to the successful execution of the contracts.

He further urged stakeholders, particularly traditional rulers and parents, to support the government’s efforts by encouraging children, especially adolescent girls, to attend school and take advantage of the opportunities provided under the programme.

Oricha said the AGILE intervention represented another major investment in education, complementing the substantial resources already being committed by the Kogi State government to the sector.

He said the initiative was in line with the government’s objective of ensuring that quality education was accessible to families across the state, with particular attention to adolescent girls.

He therefore called on parents, traditional institutions, and other stakeholders to ensure their children are available to benefit from the programme and other government educational initiatives.