The Kaduna State Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), a World Bank-supported project, has concluded plans to disburse cash transfer to 8,475 girls as incentives to promote girl-child school enrolment, retention, and completion.

The project coordinator, Mrs Maryam Dangaji, stated this in Kaduna on Tuesday at the inauguration of ECO Clubs in 10 pilot public schools as part of activities to commemorate 2022 World Environment Day.

Dangaji said the goal was to support girls prevented from attending schools due to hawking and other commercial activities at home.

She stated that 8,475 beneficiaries were drawn from 13 Local Government Areas of the state with high poverty rate and low transition rate in school.

The project coordinator added that the amount ranged from N,5000 to N10,000 which would be given to the parents or caregiver of a benefiting girl child.

Dangaji noted that N5,000 would be given to the caregiver upon the girl’s registration into the programme at the end of primary six and at the end of Junior Secondary School 3 (JSS 3), disburse every term.

She added that the beneficiaries would receive N10,000 upon transition to JSS 1 or Senior Secondary School 1.

The project coordinator said the payment was subject to the condition that a beneficiary enrolled, remained in school, and attained 80 per cent attendance.

The Project Implementation Manual (PIM) shows that a total of 34,124 girls are expected to benefit in the cash programme in the state.

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The PIM is projected that four cohorts of girls transitioning from primary six to secondary and three cohorts of girls transitioning from JSS 3 to Senior Secondary School 1 will be covered throughout the project.

Dangaji further stated that the support would enable parents to allow such girls to enrol in school, remain in school, complete secondary school education, and become useful to themselves, their family, and their community.

The project coordinator said that the objective of the AGILE project was to help improve secondary education opportunities among girls in targeted communities in participating states

“The cash transfer support was based on the observation that many girls do not transit from primary to junior secondary school or from junior secondary schools to senior secondary school, largely due to poverty.

“This subcomponent of the project is designed to reduce direct and indirect costs related to girls’ school enrolment, attendance, and completion.

“The support will alleviate the financial burden households face in sending their girls to school,” she said.

Dangaji had explained earlier that the ECO clubs, named Kaduna AGILE ECO Club, was part of AGILE’s ‘catch them young’ strategy, to make students better informed on environment conservation.

According to her, the ECO Clubs are established to inculcate the culture of tree planting, love, protection, and care for the environment among students, particularly schoolgirls.

The Star