By Tony Obiechina, Abuja

The Federal government on Friday, launched N144. 8 billion Safe Schools Financing Plan, with a view to protecting schools from terrorist attacks, across the country.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, while launching the programme in Abuja said that the plan would be implemented between 2023 and 2026.

“The National Plan will be implemented between 2023-2026, with a total Investment size of N144.8 billion. The Plan proposes N32.58 billion in 2023, N36.98 billion in 2024, N37.15 billion in 2025, and N38.03 billion in 2026, respectively.

“To this end, the Federal Government has made a provision of N15 billion in the 2023 Budget, leaving a funding gap of N13.6 billion in 2023, expected to be filled by State Governments, Agencies, the private sector, and development partners interested in supporting Nigeria.”

Mrs Ahmed added that the plan was developed through rigorous consultative strategic engagements with all relevant critical stakeholders in the Education and Security sectors at national and sub-national levels such as the Federal Ministry of Education; Nigeria Police Force; Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC); Department of State Security (DSS); Defence Headquarters (Army, Navy and Air Force).

The minister said further that inputs were also received from the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory Ministries of Education, Finance and Budget, development partners; donor agencies and civil society organizations, on how best to ensure that the education of children was not disrupted by activities of terrorists and other criminals.

“We want to make the schools secure in the medium term. The plan is to relocate schools that are susceptible to attacks into city-centres by expanding existing schools in the cities to take in more students because safety is important.

“We will also have Security Alarm Centres to be managed by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to send information of any threat to relevant to security agencies for immediate action”, she said

Mrs. Ahmed reiterated the present administration’s commitment to investing in initiatives that would safeguard teaching and learning environments, for the sake of posterity and economic development.

She said further, “I am confident that the effective implementation of the National Plan would address the challenges faced in the education sector in terms of violent attacks.

“Therefore, I encourage all relevant stakeholders- national and subnational – to speedily facilitate implementation at various levels.

“Likewise, I urge development partners and civil society organizations to hold us accountable via periodic evaluation of our performance, which will complement the Government’s tracking through the implementation of a robust Financing Safe Schools Secretariat Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism.”

The Head of the SSFP Secretariat, Mrs. Halima Iliya, said that the financing plan became important in order to sustain the funding of the Safe Schools initiative.

The Inspector-General of police, Mr. Usman Baba, representatives of Service Chiefs and other security organizations pledged to work in harmony to ensure the safety of the nation’s schools.

In a message, the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Mr. Yusuf Bichi, said that the country must not succumb to the anticts of terrorists who are attacking schools to discourage children from Western education.