Kogi Government, on Monday, inaugurated the State Project Steering Committee (SPSC) for full implementation of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme in the state.
Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Wemi Jones, while inaugurating the committee in Lokoja, said that AGILE was a Federal Government/World Bank-sponsored project.
Jones said that the project would be using secondary schools as platforms for empowering girls through education, life skills, health education, gender-based violence awareness and prevention as well as and digital literacy skills.
He further stated that the World Bank, after seeing the success of the project in the seven states that kicked-started it, had recently approved 11 additional states, including Kogi, to commence the project.
The commissioner commended Gov. Yahaya Bello for approving the project and making available all the needed logistics to make the project fully operational in the state.
He said that if the project was well executed, the state would have its public schools renovated, while young girls will also be trained to be digitally sound, self-dependent through skills acquisition and empowered through conditional cash transfer (CCT).
Jones urged the SPSC members to bring their wealth of experience to bear, while ensuring that supervision and all necessary support were given to the State Project Implementing Unit (SPIU).
The commissioner also enjoined the SPIU members to put deploy their expertise in ensuring the success of the project in the state.
Earlier, the Executive Chairman, Kogi State Science, Technical Education and Teaching Service Commission (STETSCOM), Mrs Cecilia Cook, commended the governor for approving the project.
She also commended the commissioner for the proactive measures taken so far in ensuring the success of the project.
Cook, who said that the project would bring some benefits, particularly to adolescent girls across the state, promised her agency’s support.
Also, the Executive Chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board, (SUBEB), Abdullahi Suleiman, noted that the project would demand sacrifice from both the State Project Steering Committee and the State Project Implementing Unit.
Suleiman added that the project should be driven with passion to help change the narrative about girl-child education, get those out of school back to school and help create conducive learning environment for both the girl-child and the male-child.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the SPSC committee included: Jones as Chairman and the Director of EPRS in the ministry of education, Dr Ahman Animoku as Secretary.
Others were: permanent secretaries of the various relevant ministries as well as the STETSCOM and SUBEB chairmen. (NAN)
