Nigeria, UNESCO Endorsed $6.4Million Education Deal

Nigeria and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a $6.4 million self-benefiting funds-in-trust for the revitalisation of adult and youth literacy.

Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo stated this at the State House in Abuja yesterday while receiving UNESCO Director General Ms. Irina Bokova.

Sambo said Nigeria had made commendable achievements during Bokova's tenure by the MoU and others on the establishment of the Regional Centre for Integrated River Basin Management (RE-IRBM) at the National Water Resources Institute in Kaduna and the International Centre for Biotechnology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

It also led to the election of Nigeria into UNESCO Executive Board and International Bureau of Education and the selection of Abuja as one of the five new UNESCO multi-sectoral regional offices in Africa.

According to the vice president, most of the UNESCO programmes in Nigeria are in line with the government's transformation agenda in the power, education, tourism, aviation and transport sectors.

Sambo said the government would continue to partner with the organisation through the Nigeria-UNESCO Special Plan of Cooperation established in 1999.

He thanked Bokova for the mutual progress in the cooperation, especially in the areas of reform of Nigerian education system.

Earlier, Bokova invited President Goodluck Jonathan to a UNESCO conference this December, saying the organisation's programmes are to serve the Nigerian dynamic community for sustainable development, peace and betterment of citizens' rights.