The Lagos State Government, partnering with First Bank of Nigeria Ltd, has launched a N5bn Post-Coronavirus Recovery Support capital for the education sector.
The Fund is to support low-cost private schools across the state in mitigating the negative impact of the pandemic.
This was contained in a statement issued by Gov. Sanwo-Olu’s Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile, on Friday in Lagos.
He said the intervention fund, which targets over 2,000 private schools, was formally launched by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Friday at an event held at the Banquet Hall in the State House, Alausa.
According to the statement, the loan scheme would be provided to two categories of applicants: Micro-Enterprise and Small and Medium Enterprise.
Those in the ME category will receive a sum of no more than N500,000, while those in SME will get N5m.
The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund collaborated with First Bank to facilitate the matching fund, which will be given as loans to schools and vocational education centres across the state, the statement said.
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It further quoted Sanwo-Olu as saying 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.
“It is no longer debatable that 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,” the governor was quoted as saying.
The Chief Executive Officer, First Bank, Dr Adesola Adeduntan in his own remarks said the bank went into the partnership bearing in mind the role education played towards economic growth.