Nasarawa, Niger state stakeholders engage in At-Risk-Children Initiative Program

The Federal Government has engaged critical stakeholders toward the commencement of its At-Risk-Children Programme (ARC-P) in Nasarawa and Niger States.

The consultant in charge of the project, Mr. Suleiman Mukthar, disclosed this to journalists in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital.

Mukthar explained that the project is aimed at addressing the challenges of out-of-school children and other socio-economic menaces in the country.

”ARC-P is an initiative of the federal government designed to comprehensively address cross-cutting concerns of children and young adults at risk, thereby providing them with a life of hope and dignity. 

”This program which is a crucial component of the government’s poverty reduction with growth strategy seeks to, among other things, instill a sense of belonging, good values and a passion for hard work and service in children and youth exposed to diverse forms of vulnerability.

”Before now, a lot of work has been done in line with the program’s coordination strategy at the national level, which includes training of educated youth who reside in the communities, across many spheres of endeavor, to be assigned the responsibility of training, mentoring and monitoring the out of school children in their vicinity after securing parental consent.

”So, we organized this social dialogue with key stakeholders to discuss priority settings of the project and its overall impact,” he said.

The consultant explained that the project is anchored on seven pillars, which includes; basic literacy and numeracy, health and nutrition, Entrepreneurial, Financial literacy, and Vocational skills.

Others, he said are; creativity and digital skills, agriculture, environment and climate change, security, sports and life skills and incentive interventions for caregivers and gatekeepers.

Mukthar explained that participants were drawn from the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), community leaders, Almajiri Children and their teachers, among others.

It could be recalled that Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, whose office implements the ARC-P, through the Special Advisor to the President on Social Investments, had on Feb. 10, 2022, inaugurated the program in Abuja, Nigeria.