FG re-launch ‘Madubi’ to boost World Bank’s $1.2 investment on girl-child education

The federal government has re- launched ‘Madubi’ project under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project, to further boost education of the girl child and achieve more enrolment, retention and completion of basic education. Madubi, which means mirror in Hausa, was crafted as a campaign dedicated to furthering the engagement and entrenching […]

The federal government has re- launched ‘Madubi’ project under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project, to further boost education of the girl child and achieve more enrolment, retention and completion of basic education.

Madubi, which means mirror in Hausa, was crafted as a campaign dedicated to furthering the engagement and entrenching the positive norms related to sending girls to school as well as empowering them with life skills.

The World Bank representative, Tina George speaking during the launch “Madubi :Empowering Girls , Transforming Communities ” on Friday in Abuja said AGILE, aimed at empowering adolescent girls through education, economic opportunities, targets over 25 million beneficiaries.

She said it is a $1.2 billion investment in human development as a multi-sectoral programme that is implemented at the federal and state levels to provide comprehensive support to increase adolescent girls’ secondary educational attainment and empowerment.

She said there are 15.2 million students, of which 8.6 million girls, including adolescent girls married as well as unmarried, and those with disabilities, in 18 states across Nigeria.

“The current learning environment we know is not conducive for girls, and if those that start schooling, two-thirds of girls will drop out of school before the end of junior secondary school.

“A girl in northern Nigeria has a 35% chance of getting married by age 15. She has a 45% chance of starting childbearing by age 18. This is a reality for us today.”

“The AGILE initiative is a strategic investment in the future of Nigeria. By empowering our adolescent girls, we are not only advancing their lives, but also laying the groundwork for a stronger and more resilient economy,” she said.

In her remarks, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmed said the ministry is also planning to launch another programme targeted at the education of girls in hard-to-reach locations.

Ahmed said the Madubi is a campaign to make students see a reflection of themselves in others who can be their mentors, adding that every young child deserves a chance to dream, hence, they must support the girls to actualize their dreams.

“At the ministry, we are coming up with another initiative, called ‘LUMINA’ that targets girls in hard-to-reach locations, to provide them with opportunities of education and vocational training.

“This programme that we will launch is not only for the girls, but it’s also for their mothers. It’s also for the adolescent girls, and girls that have dropped out of school for one reason or another,” she said.

On her part, the National Project Coordinator of AGILE, Amina Haruna said the AGILE project had enrolled 3.9 million girls in secondary schools across 18 states.

“We have constructed and completed over 200 Junior and Senior Secondary Schools, renovated 8,800 WASH/toilet facilities with boreholes and solar facilities. More than 460,949 furniture has been provided. AGILE has recruited and deployed 16,232 teachers with 50 per cent of these figures being female,” she said.

She added that 53,491 teaching and learning materials were also provided to Schools for effective and efficient teaching and learning.

While noting that more than one million girls had graduated from life skills and digital literacy acquisition training of the programme, she explained that schools under AGILE intervention had also developed entrepreneurial skills by setting up small scale businesses in fish ponds, livestock as part of climate change to generate income for them.