Fed Govt gets additional $700m for World Bank project on girl child education
Fed Govt gets additional $700m as 11 states join World Bank project on girls education
Nnenna Orji 
The World Bank has approved an additional $700 million for the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project to improve learning outcomes of the girl child, as 11 additional financing states joined the initial seven pilot states.
The states are: Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara.
Project Coordinator, AGILE, Hajia Amina Haruna, said this during the inauguration of the national steering committee on AGILE in Abuja.
Read more: World Bank Approves Additional $700 Million for AGILE, Boosting Girls' Education Project to $1.2 Billion
The committee inaugurated comprised executive secretaries from SUBEB, Commissioners of Education from 18 states and relevant Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
The AGILE project is a credit from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) to the Federal Government, and it is implemented in seven states.
The states are Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and Plateau, with an initial project cost of $500m.
Haruna pointed that the project was put in place to improve secondary education opportunities among girls in targeted areas in the seven participating states. She called for the commitment of the state government to recruit qualified teachers for proper impact of the project.
Recommended: Nigerian Government Commends BEA Scholarship Awardees Departing for International Studies
Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu said the inauguration was aimed at creating system reforms for expansion of access and provision of financial incentives for the girl child.
While urging the commissioners of education to make use of the available resources judiciously, Sununu also explained that the federal ministry of education had done a lot towards improving learning outcomes.
The World Bank Country Director, Shubham Chaudhuri, said the bank was passionate about the project as it would give the girl child the opportunities to contribute to their families, communities and the nation.
