As part of efforts to further deepen Kaduna State’s development partnership,and review progress on the reaching out of school children programme,Gov Uba Sani has held a high level meeting with the DG of the Kuwait fund for Arab economic development Dr Waleed Al Bihar in Kuwait city.
This transformative initiative, jointly supported by the Kuwait Fund, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Education Above All (EAA), and Save the Children International, represents a combined investment of $62.8 million.
Speaking on the occasion,Gov Uba Sani conveyed conveyed the heartfelt appreciation of the Government and people of Kaduna State for the Fund’s support to the State.
According to him, through the ROOSC programme, which targets more than 100,000 out-of-school children and directly benefits over 1.2 million learners across all 23 LGAs, hope is being restore, expanding opportunity, and laying the foundations for a more prosperous future for our young people.
The Governor used the opportunity to brief the leadership of the Fund on the significant milestones the project has achieved so far
:• Identification and mapping of 79,275 out-of-school children across 14 LGAs;
• Enrollment of 13,756 learners — surpassing our Year One target of 10,000;
• Training of 1,300 teachers and distribution of more than 35,000 learning kits;
• Ongoing civil works to rehabilitate 170 schools and construct 102 new ones.
He also emphasised the state readiness to accelerate implementation and appealed for continued support in fast-tracking the next phase of disbursements. Every week gained brings us closer to ensuring that more of our children have timely access to safe, modern, and quality learning environments.
Similarly beyond education, the Governor presented Kaduna State’s new priorities for collaboration: upgrading and solarising between 255 and 500 Primary Healthcare Centres; expanding rural infrastructure; including roads, electrification, water supply, and sanitation systems; and advancing agricultural modernisation through mechanisation, irrigation, climate-resilient inputs, processing centres, and youth and women agribusiness programmes.
The Director General reaffirmed that Kaduna State remains the first Nigerian state to receive support from the Kuwait Fund.
He commended our administration’s transparency, reform-minded leadership, and commitment to inclusive development, and welcomed our new proposals for possible funding of other key sectors.
Senior KFAED officials: Thamer Alfailakawi, Director of Operations; Khaled Salah Al-Marzouq, Project Coordinator for West Africa; and Rawya Alawadhi, Project Engineer, also participated in the meeting.
