To address the out-of-school issue in Nigeria, which has kept 20.2 million children out of school, Nigerians in the United Kingdom (UK) have raised roughly N23 million.
The money was raised at the IA-fourth Foundation’s annual Black-Tie Charity Ball, which took place late on Tuesday in London.
The Chief Executive Officer of IA-Foundation, Mrs. Ibironke Adeagbo, reported that several Nigerians from all walks of life in the UK attended the event to show their support for IA-efforts Foundation’s to combat the problem of young children skipping school in the West African nation.
According to UNESCO, a UN organization, a significant portion of Nigeria’s younger population is currently not in school. Nigeria is the biggest exporter of petroleum in Africa.
To combat the issue and convince the world community and the Nigerian government to take on the challenge, the British-registered IA-Foundation has risen to the occasion since 2019.
Adeagbo emphasized the need for people of goodwill to assist Nigeria in saving the future of its children in a speech she gave at the charity ball.
She stated that in order to place every Nigerian child in a classroom, Nigerians from all over the world must work together to make social investments in the education sector.
Adeagbo stated that every effort should be made to give Nigeria’s 20.2 million out-of-school children the chance to access a high-quality education.
She invited Nigerians living abroad to join the army of change-makers who are working to safeguard not just children’s futures but Nigeria’s overall future as well.
The founder of the Nigerian Global Business Forum, Prince Afolabi Andu, remarked in a speech titled “Securing the Future: the Imperative of Quality Education for All” that educating a child in a family might affect the course of subsequent generations from that family.
He saw Nigerians as having enormous ability to prosper and flourish if given the chance.
Andu made a plea to affluent people and business entities to support education projects for the underprivileged in order to provide possibilities for the thousands of children living on The streets.
Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the 14th Emir of Kano and a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, praised the IA-Foundation for drawing attention to the situation of education in Nigeria in a message of goodwill.
He maintains that enrolling a child in school is not sufficient and that it is more crucial to look into the kind of education the youngster is receiving.
“It is important to have teachers, facilities and the curriculum to give quality education to learners.
“In Nigeria, we have horizontal inequalities where certain regions are more disadvantaged than others with Northern Nigeria having the highest rate of out-of-school children,’’ Sanusi said.
Amb. Sarafa Ishola, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, had earlier emphasized the need of providing young Nigerians with high-quality education in a statement.
“A huge number of our children are not getting an education and those being educated are harvested by other countries,’’ he stated.
The IA-board Foundation’s chairman, Mr. Jide Olagundoye, praised the foundation for its accomplishments in addressing the out-of-school situation in Nigeria throughout the years.
He promised that the foundation will keep helping underprivileged Nigerian children so they may have a secure future.
