The Federal Government and the World Bank have restructured a $500 million education programme, reducing funding tied to the construction of new classrooms while expanding the number of Nigerian states eligible for targeted interventions, according to a World Bank document.
Details of the restructuring were contained in a World Bank paper dated May 20, 2026, obtained from the bank’s website on Thursday.
The document showed that allocations for the creation of 13,000 new classrooms under the HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All programme were significantly reduced following changes in grant financing from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
The World Bank said the changes were driven by a sharp reduction in Nigeria’s GPE System Transformation Grant allocation, which fell from $107.59 million to $53.975 million.
The report said the original arrangement had split GPE funding between the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund, but the revised structure transferred the entire reduced allocation to the World Bank-managed HOPE-Education programme.
“Originally, co-grant agents, the World Bank and UNICEF, were selected to each manage half of the initial STG funding allocation. However, with the reduced GPE financing, the Government of Nigeria proposed that the reduced allocation be managed entirely by the World Bank,” the document stated.
The programme, approved by the World Bank Board on March 31, 2025, is financed by a $500 million International Development Association credit and a $52.18 million GPE grant.
The restructuring paper showed that funding under DLI 4, which covers the number of new primary classrooms created through community participation, fell from $5.7 million to $2.55 million.
The allocation for government-community agreements to support classroom construction in 15 states dropped from $500,000 to $300,000, while funding for the construction of 13,000 classrooms declined from $5.2 million to $2.25 million.
Despite the cuts, the overall target of 13,000 classrooms remained unchanged in the revised results framework.
The World Bank said there were no changes to the programme’s development objective, closing date or institutional arrangements.
The report added, “This is the first restructuring of the operation.”
Under the revised arrangement, the number of states eligible for targeted interventions under Results Area 1 increased from three to six with the addition of Abia, Bauchi and Kwara.
The GPE-supported states are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Kebbi, Kwara and Lagos.
The restructuring also adjusted allocations across several disbursement-linked indicators covering teaching materials, teacher training, school grants, literacy assessments and school census reporting.
Under DLI 1, two earlier allocations were removed and replaced with new targets for teaching and learning materials in GPE-supported states.
A new $7.419 million allocation was introduced to ensure that 80% of public primary schools in GPE states have adequate learning materials for Grades 1 to 3, while $3.569 million was allocated for Grades 4 to 6.
Total funding under DLI 2, focused on structured pedagogy, was reduced from $14.866 million to $12.664 million after adjustments to performance indicators.
Allocations under DLI 3, covering literacy and numeracy outcomes, were reduced from $7.934 million to $5.06 million following the removal of a $3.9 million indicator tied to learning proficiency.
Funding under DLI 5, which targets out-of-school children, also fell from $1.733 million to $1.283 million.
However, allocations for annual school grants under DLI 7 rose from $4.73 million to $7.865 million, while funding for annual school census reporting under DLI 8 increased from $4.45 million to $5.676 million.
The World Bank said the revisions would also require changes to verification protocols for GPE-supported states, while procedures for IDA-financed states would remain unchanged.
The HOPE-Education programme aims to improve foundational learning outcomes, expand access to basic education and strengthen education systems in participating states, according to the report.
The programme became effective on Feb. 26, 2026, and the World Bank said implementation was already showing early progress.
