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UNICEF laments 10.5m out of school children in Nigeria
The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that no fewer than 10.5 million children are out of school in Nigeria.
UNICEF Country Director, Jean Gough stated this on Tuesday in Bauchi while exchanging views with Gov. Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State at the Government House.
According to her, UNICEF was collaborating with some stakeholders to strengthen the newly-introduced Quranic School System to reduce the number of out-of-school children.
She disclosed that the fund had concluded plans to tackle the issue of child malnutrition in the state as it had discovered that 90 per cent of child diseases was as a result of malnutrition.
Gough also announced that UN body would curb public defecation, especially with more than 2,000 communities in the state defecating in open places.
Read also: Food and mouth disease lands in Bauchi
“We intend to ensure that before I leave the country, at least one local government area in Bauchi state is public-defecation free.
“We will also work in collaboration with the state government to boost water and sanitation towards the supply of adequate and portable drinking water. “I will, therefore, want to appeal to the state government to pay its counterpart fund to enable us execute some of the projects,” she said.
In his response, Gov. Abubakar promised that the state government would renew all counterpart funding arrangements it had with donor agencies, and assured that he would ensure that they are paid on monthly basis to enable the state benefit from the projects.
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