Kwara State Government has set aside N135, 500, 000 under the Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP), as interest-free loan to 1, 119 private school owners across the state.
Mohammed Brimah, the Anchor of KWASSIP, made this known in a statement in Ilorin on Tuesday.
“KWASSIP has engaged with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) in Kwara State after they reached out for assistance to cushion the effects of school closure arising from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Brimah said.
The anchorman said the 1,119 private schools have been grouped into two, each category receiving between N200, 000 and N100, 000 depending on their staff strength.
According to him, under the arrangement, category A schools, which were 236 in number and have 20 staff and above, would receive N200, 000 each to support their workers.
“Category B schools, with 19 or less staff and totaling 883 schools, are to receive N100,000 each under the arrangement that is purely voluntary,” he said.
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq had during a recent virtual meeting held with the umbrella bodies of private schools in the state pledged to offer interest-free loan to the owners as salary support for their workers to prevent massive loss of job and poverty surge in the education sub-sector.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that Gov AbdulRazaq has promised to help proprietors and workers of private schools in the state who he acknowledged had been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic due to the closure of schools.
The private school owners had during the virtual meeting commended the administration for the food palliatives given to them through the COVID-19 committee. (NAN)
