Geminia Insurance has signed a one-year, Sh5 million partnership with the Nation Media Group (NMG) that will see the two institutions deliver newspapers to schools for free.

The Newspapers In Education (NiE) programme is targeting 20,000 pupils in schools across the country.

Under the NiE programme, NMG and Geminia will distribute the Nation and Taifa Leo newspapers to schools daily. Last year the programme reached 155 schools, which received 325 newspapers daily.

NMG is set to roll out an eight-page NiE pullout to be published in the Monday Nation targeting young readers between the ages of four and 14 years.

It is also set to launch a portal that will host interactive learning content including videos that will start and advance conversations on various topics between teachers, students, parents and partners.

“We are revamping the NiE programme and Geminia Insurance is the first corporate to come on board. We have expanded the program to accommodate more partners and this is an opportunity to issue additional and useful content so that teachers and parents can continuously use it to advance education,” said the NMG acting CEO Stephen Gitagama.

Geminia Insurance managing director Ben Ndegwa said the deal will serve to introduce and grow a reading culture among children from an early stage.

“This is also an opportunity for Geminia to advance literacy on topics like insurance,” said Mr Ndegwa.

The NiE programme network across the country includes Malindi, Kilifi, Taveta, Kinango, Oloitoktok, Maralal, Tana River, Nyanza, Meru, Embu, Isiolo and parts of Nairobi. The Generation 3 (G3) show hosted on NTV every Saturday morning is part of the programme too.

By ANNIE NJANJA