The Social Intervention Investment Programme says the Federal Government will boost school enrolment in the country by 13.6 million children by 2020.
Mrs Afiniki Dauda, the Focal Person of the programme in Niger, made this known in Minna on Wednesday on assumption of duty in the state.
“The government also plans to ensure that these pupils are physically and mentally fit to face the challenges of education and life.
“This is one of the reasons why the Federal Government introduced the home-grown school feeding and health programme and other social security schemes,’’ she said.
Dauda, who did not give number of children currently in school across the country, said government was also determined to bring back into the school system 11.4 million school children currently out of school, especially girls.
“ The arrangement will prepare them for tomorrow and discourage them from being involved in criminal activities,’’ she said.
She said that the first activity to be carried out by the Niger office of the agency was the flag-off of the empowerment scheme for which participants in the first phase had been selected.
The participants, she said, were drawn from the three senatorial zones of the state based on statistics on the poor and vulnerable in the society provided by the World Bank.
Dauda, who also did not give the number of beneficiaries in the first phase, said that the empowerment scheme would be flagged off next week.
She assured the people of the state that the Federal Government agency would be fair and just to all stakeholders.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is seriously committed to wiping out poverty from our country.
“We need the cooperation of everyone for these programmes to succeed,’’ she said. (NAN)
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