Senior Education Specialist of World Bank, Dr Olatunde Adekola says the bank has offered to give Nigeria a $500 million loan under its 'Better Education For All (BEDA) Project.

The project is to mop up out-of-school children and will  focus on the northern parts of Nigeria, especially bolstering girl-child education,  Adekola said.

Adekola who spoke when he  led a five-man World Bank team  on a courtesy call on the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, said Nigeria’s problems were mostly education-related and the five-year project was  aimed at reversing the trend.

''The project would be result-oriented and ensure that children are able to read and write," he said, adding, 'This is to help the government to strengthen its service delivery mechanisms to children, girls, women and other vulnerable groups."

The World Bank official lauded Sokoto state government 's allocation of about 27 per cent of the state's annual budget to education in 2016 and 2017.

In a remark, Governor Tambuwal assured that the existing partnership between the bank and the state government would be sustained. ''We will continue to honour our own side of commitments to such agreements in terms  of finances and other issues," he added.