Dr Mansur Isa-Buhari, the Project Coordinator, Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Education (AGILE ) in Sokoto State, has sought a collaboration with the media on community awareness.
Isa-Buhari made the request in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto at the end of a media roundtable on understanding the project contents.
He said the project had reached out to over 1.6 million people across seven initial implementing states of Katsina, Ekiti, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Borno.
READ ALSO: Troops kill 5 terrorists, rescue hostages in Sokoto
”AGILE is a Federal Government’s project supported by the World Bank, which focuses more on northern Nigeria to encourage, positively reposition and change the statistics narratives of girls toward their education and future.
”Sokoto has joined the implementing states and so far renovated 367 Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in the state.
”All these were carried out across the 23 LGs,” Isa-Buhari said.
According to him, by the end of the year, more would have benefited along with scholarship part of the project.
He said that no fewer than 199,921 students had benefited from the scholarships through conditional cash transfers across the country.
He further said that 6,914 schools were renovated, provided with 6,704 WASH facilities
He said that at least 6,000 girls had learnt skills and digital literacy in the implementation states through the project.
”The project has impacted on at least 20 million girls across the 18 states, strengthens advocacy, media involvement and other related areas,” he said.
Isa-Buhari described the media involvement as a driving strategy to achieve the objectives of the project.
He said that the media was essential and key to realising the desired success in the process of implementing it’s template.
“The media is a dependable agent that would help AGILE counter the general misconceptions and negative perceptions about the activities of the project, particularly in the north.
“The media is a positive mobiliser, which can impact on our communities and contribute to AGILE advocacy approach to commit the girl child and parents to accepting the project with open mind.
“We are providing the window for the girl child to have life skills in order to support themselves, parents and husbands through empowerment,” Isa-Buhari said.
He further said that religious and community groups, ministries and agencies were actively involved as driving components to strengthen approaches and achieve the desired objectives of the project.
