The Islamic Development Bank has agreed to provide $95 million to help improve the quality of education in Nigeria.
The funding will be used primarily to integrate local Koranic schools — dubbed madrasas — into Nigeria’s mainstream education system. IsDB President Ahmad Mohammed Ali said such integration is “very important now with the unfortunate problem of Boko Haram,” Bloomberg reports.
Boko Haram is the Taliban-inspired Islamist group Nigerian officials are blaming for the recent surge of violent incidents in the country. The group is also deemed responsible for the attack on the U.N. compound in Abuja, where 24 people died.
IsDB also plans to provide some $2 billion to Nigeria over the next three years. The bank and the Nigerian government are still negotiating the details and exact amount, Bloomberg says, but funding will likely be used for power, infrastructure and agriculture projects.
Meanwhile, IsDB has set out to create jobs in Tunisia and Libya. It promised to give $50 million each to the two transitioning countries.
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