Ten thousand public school teachers in Niger State are to benefit from the N2 .1 billion motorcycle loan in order to enhance productivity and provide mobility for those teaching in hard to reach rural areas.

The scheme which was approved by the state executive council was announced on Friday by the state Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fatima Madugu in Minna, the state capital was in fulfilment of Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello’s resolve to improve the working condition of teachers in public schools.

The Commissioner said the loan scheme essentially is for teachers in the basic education sector – primary and junior schools.

According to her, “Niger State government through the State Universal Primary Education Board (SUPEB) approached a commercial bank to `obtained loan of N2.1 billion to procure motorcycles to be given out on loan to teachers in primary and junior secondary schools in the state to facilitate their movement.

“This initiative was packaged to improve the welfare of our teachers, especially those teaching in the hard to reach rural areas of the state and to further enhance their working condition, improve quality of teaching and motivate teachers.

“After a thorough screening exercise which had all the stakeholders – Ministry of Education, SUBEB, the bank and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), 10,000 beneficiaries of the scheme emerged out of the 22,367 teachers in the public primary and junior secondary schools in the state.”

The Commissioner said that the scheme which will soon be flagged off have beneficiaries in all the 3,166 primary schools and 60 junior secondary schools in the state.

“All arrangements have been concluded and all necessary modalities carried out for the take-off of the scheme. The repayment plan for the loan is 18 months and due diligence was carried out by the government in order to ensure only qualified teachers and those who are not indebted to any loan,” Madugu stated.