The Nigerian government and the World Bank have restructured a US$500 million education programme, reducing funding earmarked for classroom construction while expanding support to more states under the initiative.
According to a World Bank restructuring paper dated May 20, 2026, the changes affect the HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All programme, which is financed through a US$500 million credit from the bank’s International Development Association and a grant from the Global Partnership for Education.
The restructuring follows a sharp reduction in Nigeria’s allocation under the GPE System Transformation Grant, which was cut from US$107.59 million to US$53.98 million.
As a result, funding tied to the creation of new classrooms has been scaled back. The allocation under a key performance indicator covering the construction of 13,000 new primary school classrooms through community participation was reduced to US$2.55 million from US$5.7 million.
Funding for government-community agreements supporting classroom construction in 15 states was lowered to US$300,000 from US$500,000, while allocations directly linked to building the 13,000 classrooms were cut to US$2.25 million from US$5.2 million.
Despite the reduction in funding, the programme’s target of creating 13,000 classrooms remains unchanged.
The World Bank said the revised arrangement was prompted by changes to the management of the GPE grant. Under the original structure, the grant was to be shared equally between the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund. Following the reduction in financing, however, Nigerian authorities proposed that the entire grant be managed through the World Bank’s HOPE-Education programme.
The restructuring also expands the number of states eligible for targeted interventions under the programme. Three additional states — Abia, Bauchi and Kwara — have been added, increasing the number of beneficiary states from three to six.
The updated list of GPE-supported states now includes Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Kebbi, Kwara and Lagos.
Funding allocations were also revised across several programme indicators covering teaching materials, teacher mentoring, literacy assessments, school grants and education data systems.
Under measures aimed at improving the availability of teaching and learning materials, new allocations totaling nearly $11 million were introduced to ensure that most public primary schools in the supported states have adequate learning resources across Grades 1 to 6.
Meanwhile, funding linked to improving teacher instructional practices and literacy and numeracy outcomes was reduced, while allocations for annual school grants and school census reporting were increased.
Funding for annual school grants rose to $7.87 million from $4.73 million, while support for annual school census reporting increased to $5.68 million from $4.45 million.
The World Bank said the restructuring would require changes to monitoring and verification processes in the GPE-supported states, while existing procedures for states funded through IDA resources would remain unchanged.
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The HOPE-Education programme, approved in March 2025 and effective since February 2026, aims to improve foundational learning outcomes, expand access to basic education and strengthen education systems in participating states.
The World Bank said implementation of the programme was already showing early signs of progress and stressed that there would be no changes to its development objectives, implementation arrangements or closing date.
