Sharon Adurokiya, Reporting
THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has commenced the training of 35,000 adolescent girls in Katsina State in various entrepreneurial skills aimed at making them employable and self-reliant.
The Adolescent Development Specialist at UNICEF Abuja, Ngozi Izuora-Songu, disclosed this on Monday evening during the launch of the Skills4Girls Programme and a co-creation session with adolescent girls, held at the Tourist Lodge Hotel in Katsina.
Ms Izuora-Songu said the training, which targets girls aged between 10 and 19, is designed to equip them with the necessary skills to earn a livelihood and, ultimately, enable them to impact their communities positively.
She said the training would be held for girls in four Local Government Areas — Katsina, Funtua, Kaita and Dutsi — with focus on entrepreneurship development as well as how the girls can become employable in the future.
She explained that the training is an extension of other programmes implemented by UNICEF in Nigeria, but that Katsina was selected as the first state for the programme owing to what she described as a learning gap between boys and girls in the state.
The programme is expected to run from 2026 to 2029, with a total of 47,500 people, including the adolescent girls, expected to benefit from the training.
She explained that part of the training would also be extended to 7,500 boys, as well as 5,000 teachers, mentors, trainers and community members in the selected council areas.
The UNICEF representative said girls who are in school or out of school, as well as those with physical disabilities, are among those selected to benefit from the programme.
She, however, said the girls would first go through the theoretical aspect of the training, where they would be asked to discuss viable skills present in their communities so that the programme can be tailored in line with what residents will patronise.
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Kabir Magaji, said the training, which is in collaboration with the board, would go a long way towards helping the girls become less dependent on their family members.
Dr Magaji said the programme, which is in line with the state government’s “Build Your Future” agenda, would complement what the current state administration is doing to promote skills acquisition amongst youths in the state.
He therefore called on the beneficiaries to use the opportunity to learn all they can so that they can secure their future as well as those of their family members.
