The Kaduna State Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Project- AGILE, has disbursed over three hundred million naira worth of scholarships to school girls across seventeen local government areas of the state.
The state project coordinator, Hajiya Maryam Sani Dangaji made this known at the disbursement flag off exercise where she said the conditional cash transfer was aimed at facilitating learning process of the girl child in Kaduna state.
Hajiya Maryam explained that twenty eight thousand five hundred and sixty two girls, (28,562,00) across 526 schools in the state are to benefit in the second cohort of the scholarship AGILE-World Bank project.
She stressed that the AGILE project, which was in seven states of the federation was concerned about empowering the girl child with the needed education, skills and digital literacy.
The Project Coordinator also said in fulfilment of their promise, four thousand most vulnerable mothers and caregivers of the girl child were also given green clean cook stoves to make cooking easier for them.
She said the green clean stove given to the caregivers would help in preserving the environment, improve financial stability and facilitate economic empowerment within the home.
“We are also giving their caregivers green clean stove which is a sustainable household device that would enable them cook faster and also save firewood consumption”, she added.
In her remarks, the Acting Governor, Hajiya Hadiza Balarebe appreciated the federal government and World bank in ensuring that girls do not remain a societal burden but grow to be positive change makers and contributors to thier communities.
She appreciated the AGILE project in helping reduce the rate of deforestation by giving cooking stoves to caregivers, saying, it will reduce cooking with firewood at home which she said has done more harm than good.
The Acting Governor explained that the health and environmental challenges informed the AGILE project application of the conditional cash transfer and the clean cook stoves which was assisting indigents students to continue schooling and helping caregivers with cleaner cooking facility.
“This green cook stoves have the potential to reduce absence of adolescence girls from school as it will drastically reduce the money caregivers spend in buying firewood and invariably, the time they may spend in sending those in their care to scout for the firewoods.”
“From a technological stand point, the green clean cook stove are locally fabricated, easy to produce as well as easy to use, which is in tenderm with the Kaduna State environment policy,” she concluded.
Highlights of the event include, presentation of cheques and the clean cook stoves to beneficiaries and a play presented by the students.
