The Nasarawa State Government said it will spend over N12bn to renovate 690 existing primary, secondary school structures and build 30 new ones in the state.

The state’s commissioner for Education, Dr John W. Mamman, disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Lafia, yesterday.

According to him, the money to be used for the work was part of the state’s counterpart fund in collaboration with the World Bank and a Non-Governmental Organization called Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), which is already on the ground to supervise the implementation of the projects.

“The first one, the state government paid 150 million naira, and as you pay, the World Bank is more than willing to give in return. The Governor is willing to pay more this year so that we can add to the standard of renovations and construction of new schools,” he said.

He further disclosed that the first phase of the projects would be renovation of 690 schools, while the second phase would be construction of 30 new schools across the state.

“In the first phase, we are doing renovations, supply of water, and perimeter fencing of schools, not less than 690. In the second phase, we have the construction of new schools numbering 30, so those are the rolling plans we have. This is in addition to a bilingual education system that we will want to partner with the World Bank to see how we can bring all these almajiris from Tsangaya schools to merge them with the formal education system in the state,” he said.