First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has stressed the importance of investing in early childhood development, describing it as critical to improving children’s growth opportunities and shaping their future. The First Lady stated this on Tuesday when she received a delegation from the World Bank led by its Country Director in……
First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has stressed the importance of investing in early childhood development, describing it as critical to improving children’s growth opportunities and shaping their future.
The First Lady stated this on Tuesday when she received a delegation from the World Bank led by its Country Director in Nigeria, Dr Matthew Verghis, at the State House, Abuja.
Senator Tinubu said the Federal Government remained committed to supporting initiatives that would promote national development and improve the wellbeing of Nigerians.
She said Nigeria’s large population remains a major advantage that could drive growth and progress if properly harnessed.
“The population size of Nigeria alone is our advantage, because Nigeria is a great nation,” the First Lady said.
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She highlighted ongoing government efforts across various sectors, including environmental sanitation, nutrition and education, noting that a multi-sectoral approach remained key to achieving sustainable development.
“The ministries have also been doing their best, for the benefit of our nation, with environment, sanitation because environmental cleanliness is very key, I worked with the Minister of Environment to an extent and that was why we started the Green Challenge,” she said.
Senator Tinubu also pointed to the importance of collaboration among government institutions, saying President Bola Tinubu had assembled a capable team to drive national development.
“You talked on multi sectoral approach, that is what we have been doing. I will say that Mr President has gotten himself a wonderful team, they got it,” she added.
The First Lady said her office would continue to collaborate with wives of state governors to implement programmes targeted at improving the lives of children.
She particularly expressed optimism about the establishment of a sustainable school feeding programme before the end of the current administration.
“We are looking forward to school feeding. I can assure that before we finish our tenure, it would have been properly established because even Mr President is very passionate about this, even when he was the Governor in Lagos State,” she said.
Earlier, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Dr Matthew Verghis, said the bank considers early childhood development (ECD) as one of the country’s most important long-term investments.
Verghis said the World Bank’s ECD strategy focuses on areas such as nutrition, healthy living, education and skills development through a multi-sectoral approach.
“Every five or six years, we reframe our programmes in Nigeria. Nigeria is unsurprisingly one of World Bank’s largest partners and our office here is one of the largest in the world,” he said.
The World Bank official noted that investments made during pregnancy and the first five years of a child’s life have significant long-term benefits, including improved cognitive development, reduced healthcare costs and poverty reduction.
“This definition of ECD is very strong in the global literature, in the Economic Research where it has become clear that investing in the young ones is among the best investments especially on the public sector side, it has high returns,” Verghis said.
He, however, noted that such investments require strong leadership because the benefits often take time to materialise.
“One down side is the returns comes very much later, sometimes it’s not everybody that is willing to take that perspective, it requires leadership to make that happen, the returns don’t come quickly therefore, it requires the leadership,” he added.
Verghis said Nigeria’s success remains important to the World Bank’s global objectives, stressing that the country’s progress in areas such as healthcare, energy and broadband access would impact the institution’s targets.
“Nigeria is a very important partner for World Bank and her success is crucial for the World Bank to achieve its target,” he said.
The World Bank delegation briefed the First Lady on its early years programme in Nigeria, which is currently at the technical and analytical stage and expected to guide interventions over the next five years.
