From Ayodele Samuel & Akilani Abdullah, Lagos
Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola yesterday gave hint on how the $90million (N13.5billion) World Bank Loan on Education granted the state in 2009 was spent, saying his government had nothing to hide on the Fund.
Fashola speaking at the launch of a book titled: ‘Eko Project: A Legacy of Excellence,’ in Agege local government, said that the concerns raised in some quarters that the world bank loan had not been spent in an open manner was unfounded, saying “the funds had been deployed judiciously for the development of education.”
He explained that the loan, obtained to fund teaching and learning infrastructure under the State`s Eko Secondary Education Project was achieving its purpose, as it had significantly improved student`s performance.
“Some people have made unsubstantiated allegations against us that we have stolen World Bank money. But in this government our collateral is our collective integrity. We have nothing to hide; that is why when we marked our every 100 days in office, we give account to the people because we have nothing to hide.
“The results of our N13.5 billion World Bank Education loan are in the open for everybody to see. And those who are managing the funds are providing the details of how they are spending the loan.
“So nothing really to hide .The money is not in our hands, it is in the hands of the schools and the funds is been used judiciously “ he said.
Fashola said explained the World Bank intervention was to improve teaching and learning infrastructure in schools, with a view to raise education standards.
The government said the deployment of the funds had helped improved students’ performance in public examinations as performance had improved from 7 per cent in 2009 to 41 per cent in 2013.
While saying he was satisfied with the results of the intervention so far, Fashola charged teachers to work towards achieving 61 per cent WAEC performance in the nearest future.
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