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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
First Lady of Nigeria, Oluremi Tinubu, said on Monday that investing in early childhood is essential to unlock the nation’s long-term human capital potential, and urged a coordinated, multi-sector response to scale up interventions.
According to a statement issued by her media aide, Busola Kukoyi, the First Lady while receiving a World Bank delegation at the State House, said Nigeria’s large population is an advantage that must be matched with deliberate policies to nurture the next generation. “The population size of Nigeria alone is our advantage. Nigeria is a great nation, and we must invest now so our children can lead tomorrow,” she said.
The First Lady highlighted ongoing efforts across ministries on sanitation, nutrition and public health, and pointed to the Green Challenge initiative she supported with the Minister of Environment as an example of cross-sector action. “Environmental cleanliness is very key. We worked with the Minister of Environment and that is why we started the Green Challenge,” she said.
On health and learning, Tinubu said her office would strengthen collaboration with governors’ wives and other stakeholders to drive school feeding and other child-focused programmes. “We are looking forward to a national school feeding programme. I can assure you that before our tenure ends it will be properly established — Mr. President is passionate about this,” she said.
World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mathew Verghis, described early childhood development (ECD) as one of the bank’s highest long-term priorities in the country. “Investing from pregnancy to age five yields strong returns: enhanced cognitive skills, reduced health costs and a real chance to break cycles of poverty,” he said.
Verghis said the World Bank’s upcoming five- to six-year programme will apply a multi-sector framework on nutrition, education, health and skills development. “Nigeria is unsurprisingly one of the World Bank’s largest partners. If Nigeria does not succeed, the World Bank does not succeed,” he added.
The Country Director urged the First Lady to use her platform to accelerate a whole-of-government approach that can sustain the programme’s benefits over time. “Leadership matters because the returns from ECD come later; it takes political will to persist,” Verghis said.
Both the First Lady’s office and the World Bank delegation — which included senior technical staff — welcomed the alignment between the bank’s country partnership framework and the First Lady’s advocacy against child malnutrition.
The World Bank team briefed Mrs. Tinubu on the technical and analytical phase of its Early Years programme, which targets scale-up over the next five years.
