12th May, 2011
More than 40 million illiterate adults in Nigeria will be literate by 2015, says the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs.
A statement by Mr. Abdulrasheed Safana, Information Officer in the MDGs Office, on Wednesday in Abuja said the Federal Government was partnering with UNESCO to revitalise adult and youth literacy programmes in the country to ensure that 40 million adults were literate by 2015.
It said a report made available by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President (SSAP) on MDGs indicates that an MoU has been signed at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
The statement said the MoU was signed between the Federal Government, represented by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai, and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova.
It said the recently established N1 billion Self-Benefitting Fund-in-Trust for the programme would help to revitalise adult and youth literacy programmes in Nigeria.
“The programme will be funded using the Debt Relief Gains (DRG) for the MDGs, through the Office of SSAP on MDGs, and is meant to respond directly to the alarmingly high rate of illiteracy among adults and youths in Nigeria.
“The funds are to be warehoused with UNESCO to ensure cohesion in the delivery of the programme over the next four years,†the statement added.
It said the programme would be implemented by UNESCO in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education.