Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has launched N5 billion Post-Coronavirus (COVID-19) Recovery Support capital for education sector in the state.
The fund is to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on low cost private schools in the state and it is targeted at 2,000 private schools.
Governor Sanwo-Olu disclosed this on Friday via his Twitter handle.
“Today, I launched a N5bn support fund to help reduce the impact of #COVID19 on low-cost private schools in Lagos,” the governor said.
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“The educational sector is one of those severely impacted by the pandemic, with schools and vocational learning-centres shut since March.”
According to him, the facility will benefit 2000 low-cost schools with amounts ranging from N500,000 to N5million.
Sanwo-Olu noted that the intervention was part of the state government’s sustainable solutions to limit the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on both residents and businesses.
As the State gradually unlocks socio-economic activities, following the impact of the pandemic, the governor said the loan programme would help the targeted beneficiaries accelerate recovery and give them opportunity of painless return to regular life.
He said: “It is no longer debatable that the education is one of the sectors that are severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with schools and vocational learning-centres shut since March when we took the tough decisions meant to disrupt the spread of the virus. Given the incidence of the closure of schools in response to the pandemic, it would not be out of context to note that the challenges presently faced by these schools would increase significantly.
“With access to low-cost funding for privately owned schools and vocational training centres in the state, we are confident that this programme will help accelerate sustainable and painless return to world-class learning and skills acquisition of our young population. As a responsible Government, we are obligated to provide intervention that would enable learners in these schools’ study in line with the new normal.”
The Intervention fund is made possible following collaboration the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) had with First Bank of Nigeria Limited to facilitate the matching fund.
The move, according to the state government, is to help accelerate a sustainable return to learning and skills acquisition.
