Over 2.4 Million Benefit From World Bank Education Project As Minister Inaugurates Steering Committee

The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) has by the end of September 2023 reached a total of 2.4 million beneficiaries in seven participating states.

THE WHISTLER reports that the AGILE Project is a World Bank assisted project of the Federal Ministry of Education geared at improving secondary education opportunities for adolescent girls aged between 10 and 20 years.

The project which is for 5 years (2020-2025) is being implemented in seven states of Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and Plateau States with additional eleven states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Sokoto, Jigawa,Nasarawa, Kogi, Niger , Kwara and Zamfara joining the project this year.

Speaking while inaugurating a National Project Steering Committee for the project on Tuesday, the minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, stated that the project is at the heart of the federal government as it works towards reducing the overwhelming number of out-of-school children in the country.

The minister, who expressed satisfaction over the level of implementation of the project, added that AGILE has given the ministry a template that it will adopt to reach more children that are out of school.

Tahir noted that if the success recorded in the seven states is also replicated in the other eleven states, it will no doubt go a long way in achieving the government’s goal of taking the Nigerian children off the streets.

He however, spoke of the need for sustainability even after the project has elapsed and expressed hope that after the end of the circle, the World Bank will be willing to continue with the project after seeing the level of success in the 18 states.

While expressing gratitude to the World Bank for funding the project, the minister cautioned the participating states not to be a ‘weak link,’ in the realization of the goals of the project.

Also speaking, the minister of state for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu stated that educating the girl-child is an investment, adding that Nigeria is determined to actualize the Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

He urged the participating states to ensure full participation and implementation of the project so as to get the needed result.

In his goodwill message, World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, stated that AGILE Project was dear to him because it was the first programme he got involved with after he arrived in Nigeria, 4 years ago.

He stated that the future of Nigeria will be brighter with the education of the girl-child and expressed satisfaction with the inclusiveness of the program where communities, traditional and religious rulers are involved.

He explained that the project took off in seven states with $500m and announced that two months ago, the World Bank’s board approved an additional $700m making it a total $1.2 billion for the project.

Speaking about the project, National Project Coordinator, Amina Haruna explained that the project, which is implemented in secondary schools in the participating states, has three components which include creating new safe learning spaces in schools, improving existing infrastructure in secondary and teacher recruitment and deployment.

On the achievement of the project so far, Haruna stated that over 2.4 million beneficiaries have been reached, which include over 1.3m adolescent girls.

She added that over 7967 non-functional classrooms were renovated,15,418 WASH facilities constructed and 84,567 teaching and learning materials delivered to schools.

Haruna said that 184,153 girls received digital literacy skills, 98,414 received life skills and 476,626 received scholarships to help them stay in school.

The National Project Steering Committee of AGILE which will be chaired by the minister of education comprises ministers from the Federal Minister of Finance, Women Affairs, Youth, Health, Human and Disaster Management and Poverty Alleviation and Commissioner for Education from the 18 participating states.