The World Bank has approved a fresh $700 million loan to support education and empowerment initiatives for adolescent girls in Nigeria.
The loan will be used to scale up the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) program, which was being implemented in seven states.
The additional funding will expand the program to 11 other states and reach more out-of-school girls, married girls, and girls with disabilities.
Checks revealed Nigeria has a large number of out-of-school children, with estimates ranging from 12 million to 15 million.
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Many of the children were concentrated in Northern Nigeria.
Also, an estimated one million children were affected by increased insecurity around schools in 2020-2021.
The AGILE program has been successful in increasing the number of girls in secondary schools in the seven implementing states.
Under the program, over 5,000 classrooms have been renovated, and over 250,000 eligible girls have received scholarships.
The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, stated that investing in adolescent girls was imperative for Nigeria’s development and economic prosperity.
Chaudhuri added that the additional financing will benefit more than 15 million students and other beneficiaries, including teachers, administrators, families, communities, and staff in existing and newly established schools.
The loan statement read:
“The World Bank approved additional financing of $700m for Nigeria to scale up the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment programme whose goal is to improve secondary education opportunities among girls in targeted states.
“The additional financing will scale up project activities from the current seven states to eleven additional states and increase the targeted beneficiaries to include out-of-school girls, those who are married, and those who have disabilities.
“In the seven AGILE programme implementing states – Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Plateau – the number of girls in secondary schools has increased from about 900,000 to over 1.6 million.
“Under the programme, over 5,000 classrooms have been renovated and over 250,000 eligible girls have received scholarships.
“The AGILE programme has supported construction and rehabilitation of WASH facilities in secondary schools and the installation of computers and solar panels which make attending school more convenient and conducive for both girls and boys. Life skills, systems strengthening, and advocacy are other key aspects of the program which address social norms impeding girls’ education.”
Chaudhuri said:
“Closing the gender gaps in economic empowerment by ensuring girls have access to education and skills is key for Nigeria’s development and economic prosperity.
“Nigeria’s working population will soon be one of the youngest and largest around the world, which means that investing in adolescent girls is imperative when addressing overall economic prospects and growth.”
