By Judith Ugwumadu | 13 June 2014

The UK Department for International Development has launched a package of aid and assistance to help Nigeria improve its economic development and make public finances more efficient. 

DFID said it would create a new programme to advise the Nigerian government on how to make its public finances more accountable and transparent.

‘In time this will ensure more resources reach those who need it most especially women and girls,’ the department said.

Experts are also to be sent out to crisis-ridden northern Nigeria to improve economic conditions there and the department has struck a ‘landmark’ pledge to work with the US government on joint aid programmes to 1 million get girls and boys into school by 2020. More than half of these children will be girls.

International development secretary Justine Greening said: ‘The abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls is a brutal reminder of the dangers faced on a daily basis by girls who simply want to go to school.

‘We cannot allow Boko Haram to shut down education in northern Nigeria and snuff out the life chances of millions of Nigerians while they are still children.

‘This new partnership with the US will ensure a million more children receive an education and improve dramatically their chances of better and healthier life.’