The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) has budgeted £140 million for its programmes in Nigeria in 2010 and 2011. This shows an increase by £40 million from the funds for 2008/2009 and £20 million for 2009/2010.
The department will also help Nigeria increase power generation to 6,000 megawatts by this year, a document given to journalists by the British High Commissioner, Bob Dewar, in Abuja at the weekend, has shown.
The document details the programmes that the DFID will embark upon in the country this year.
Expanding support
It states that the increased allocation would be used to expand support to selected partner states for health and education over the next three years and that 4000 new classrooms would be built and 500,000 extra children given access to education.
The document also states that the utilisation of health facilities in supported states would increase by 25 percent to over 30 million people in Nigeria, and the number of birth attended by skilled birth attendants would rise from 35 percent to 50 percent by 2014.
On power, it says: “DFID-funded Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility is helping to increase power generation to 6000 MW by 2010, from 2,500-3,000 MW in 2008. Better power supply is essential for better hospitals and businesses.”
More condoms
The extra funds will also allow DFID-Nigeria to reach 27 million young people with HIV information through the media, and provide 1.6 billion condoms; helping to reduce the number of new infections by 50,000 people every year.
It will also fund a joint programme at state level with the World Bank to encourage growth; and work with governments to raise awareness of climate change and promote action to tackle it, including through low carbon growth, to fulfil recent white paper commitments.
Success story
The department says its support and advocacy has helped the government of Nigeria to implement a system for monitoring federal debt relief gains of about $750 million/year, ensuring that they are spent on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Other recent evidences of the DFID’s impact in the country include identifying £850 million of mis-allocated funds in the 2007 federal budget and reallocating them to more effective spending, introducing more strategic and better long-term planning of the federal budget, helping to align resources with policy and greatest needs, and developing a wide range of improved health policies and legislation, including a new health bill which will allocate more resources to primary care.
The department has also increased public awareness of HIV.
According to the department, the willingness of Nigerians to take HIV tests has risen from 40 percent to 54 percent; the percentage of youth who have taken a HIV test has doubled from 10 percent to 20 percent; and consistent condom use has risen from 35 percent to 44 percent.