The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reaffirmed its commitment to advancing basic education in Benue State following a strategic needs assessment visit to the Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) on Wednesday, 4 March 2026.
The UNICEF delegation, led by International Consultant Michelle Boujikian, engaged SUBEB officials in high-level discussions focused on improving data access, conducting comprehensive school needs assessments, and designing evidence-based interventions to enhance learning outcomes across the state.
Speaking during the session, Boujikian underscored UNICEF’s ongoing efforts to address the educational challenges confronting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), particularly children residing in camps. She emphasised that access to reliable and actionable data remains critical in developing impactful and sustainable education interventions.
Responding, the Executive Chairman of SUBEB, Dr Grace Adagba, expressed appreciation for UNICEF’s continued partnership, notably its support during the Benue Education Summit 2026 through the provision of additional learning materials. She revealed that recent surveys conducted by SUBEB identified pressing challenges affecting children across the state, including shortages of learning materials, inadequate school feeding structures, and low parental motivation towards enrolment and retention.
Dr Adagba highlighted UNICEF’s strategic role in supporting the implementation of the “Building Rights to Access and Compulsory Education for Un-enrolled Pupils” (BRACE-UP) Project. The initiative, recently launched by the Governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Dr Hyacinth Iormem Alia, seeks to reintegrate out-of-school children into formal basic education and strengthen compulsory enrolment mechanisms statewide.
According to the SUBEB Chairman, collaboration with UNICEF will reinforce critical components of the BRACE-UP initiative, including:
- Training parents as community-based motivation agents to drive mass enrolment
- Providing financial stipends to vulnerable families
- Revitalising the School Feeding Programme
- Promoting compulsory enrolment in formal basic education
Also speaking, Mr Believe O. Eke, Education Specialist at UNICEF’s Enugu Field Office, commended Dr Adagba’s leadership and openness to partnership. He disclosed that UNICEF would support the BRACE-UP Project through a structured one-year implementation framework. The support package includes deployment of facilitators, training of parents and education stakeholders on positive parenting practices, and the distribution of 400 “School-in-a-Box” kits to IDP camps and basic schools across the three senatorial zones of Benue State.
In separate remarks, Mrs Obasiegbe Nneka, UNICEF Education Specialist from the Abuja Office, and Dr Ngulum Emmanuel, UNICEF Desk Officer in Benue State, praised SUBEB for sustaining collaborative efforts aligned with UNICEF’s ACCESS pillar.
Dr Adagba concluded by acknowledging UNICEF’s consistent contributions to educational development in Benue State and called on corporate organisations and development partners to join the collective effort to ensure that every child in the state has access to quality basic education.
