The Federal Government is introducing a ₦2 billion Learners Retention Support Programme to help 100,000 pupils overcome financial barriers to education, alongside the distribution of two million packs of sanitary towels to girls in public basic education schools nationwide.
The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, announced the intervention on Monday at the national flag-off of the distribution of sanitary towels and back-to-school materials in Abuja to mark the 2026 International Day of the Girl Child.
Under the first phase of the retention scheme, each of the 100,000 beneficiaries is expected to receive ₦20,000 to support school attendance and reduce the financial pressures that could force children to abandon their education.
The initiative also seeks to address menstrual hygiene challenges that frequently disrupt the education of adolescent girls, particularly those in rural communities where access to sanitary products remains limited.
Tinubu said poverty and the absence of basic menstrual hygiene materials should not determine whether a girl remains in school or has the opportunity to fulfil her potential.
“Keeping our girls in school requires us to recognise and address the challenges that affect their education, especially those in rural communities, who often miss school because they do not have access to sanitary products,” she said.
The programme, known as Flow with Confidence 2.0, is being implemented by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), building on an initiative launched by the First Lady’s Renewed Hope Initiative on October 2, 2025.
The earlier intervention supplied a year’s worth of disposable sanitary pads to 370,000 schoolgirls in rural communities across the country, according to Tinubu.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the Federal Government would integrate sanitary towel distribution into UBEC’s annual budget to ensure that the intervention continues beyond individual campaigns.
“Today, we are translating that pledge into practical action. UBEC will make provision within its annual budgets to support the supply of sanitary towels to girls in public basic education schools,” Alausa said.
He explained that the institutionalisation of the programme followed his earlier commitment to sustain the intervention through UBEC and the World Bank-supported Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE).
UBEC Executive Secretary, Aisha Garba, said the two million packs of sanitary towels would be distributed alongside school bags, shoes, exercise books, mathematical sets and writing materials to girls in public basic education schools across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
She said the intervention was designed to ensure that girls’ educational aspirations were not curtailed by preventable material shortages, describing access to sanitary products as a practical measure capable of making a difference in their lives.
Chairman of the UBEC Governing Board, Tanko Al-Makura, linked school retention to the prevention of early marriage, warning that girls often begin withdrawing from education through repeated absences before eventually dropping out.
“Child marriage and dropping out of school are two sides of the same coin. A girl rarely leaves school on the day she is married. She leaves weeks and months before, one missed day at a time, until there is nothing left to hold her,” he said.
Tinubu urged governors’ wives, state education commissioners and chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards to ensure that the materials reach the intended beneficiaries transparently, while calling on traditional and religious leaders to challenge the stigma associated with menstruation.
The intervention comes amid broader efforts to improve access to basic education. Garba disclosed that UBEC had built more than 4,000 classrooms in less than three years, distributed learning materials to over three million pupils and facilitated the return of more than 700,000 out-of-school children to school.
Education Lead at the British High Commission, Ian Attfield, said investment in girls’ education also had economic benefits, citing estimates that each additional year of schooling increased women’s earnings by an average of 12 per cent. He added that UK-supported programmes had helped more than 1.5 million additional girls access schooling in northern Nigeria since 2012.
The First Lady urged girls to remain committed to their education and speak up when they need support, while calling for collective action to ensure that poverty, inadequate learning materials and menstrual hygiene challenges do not prevent them from completing their schooling.
