The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) has commenced training of local government facilitators and mobilisers to drive community awareness and behavioural change for girl-child education across Yobe’s 17 local government areas.
AGILE’s inception and onboarding training for Component 2.1 of the project began on Monday in Damaturu, in partnership with Spotlight for Transparency and Accountability Initiative.
State Project Coordinator of AGILE, Abdullahi Dahiru Bula, said the project focuses on addressing barriers preventing girls from enrolling in school and completing 12 years of formal education across communities statewide.
Bula explained that AGILE has three major components designed to improve access, retention and learning outcomes for girls, while addressing social, economic and institutional barriers to education.
Under Component One, he said the project is constructing 50 new secondary schools for girls and rehabilitating 225 others, comprising 150 Junior Secondary Schools and 75 Senior Secondary Schools statewide.
Component Two, he noted, focuses on creating an enabling environment. Sub-component 2.1, the focus of the current training, addresses behavioural change communication to mobilise communities against harmful social norms.
“Some of the factors that hinder the completion of secondary school education or even enrolment have to do with the behaviour of some parents who feel it is not necessary for girls to be educated,” he said.
He added that sub-component 2.2a provides life-skills training on personal and menstrual hygiene, while 2.2b focuses on digital literacy, with desktop computers provided to schools for effective learning.
“While 2.2c is Second Chance Education through non-formal centres for out-of-school girls to learn literacy, numeracy and livelihood skills,” he explained, providing alternative pathways for education and empowerment.
According to him, sub-component 2.3 provides conditional cash transfers to support girls in JSS1 and SS1 with school materials during critical transition stages within the education system.
In his remarks, Executive Director of Spotlight for Transparency and Accountability Initiative, Muazu Alhaji Modu, said his organisation was engaged as consultants for Component 2.1 because of its grassroots network.
He said the organisation’s presence across the 17 local government areas positions it effectively to support community mobilisation, awareness creation and advocacy efforts aimed at promoting girls’ education statewide.
“The whole concept is around how we can leverage our network across the 17 local governments to mobilise parents, teachers, community and religious leaders to support access to education across the state,” he said.
Modu emphasised that AGILE “is not a foreign programme but a Nigerian government initiative implemented by state governments”, designed to address local educational challenges and improve opportunities for girls.
“AGILE is not something imported from somewhere else. It is a Nigerian government initiative implemented by state governments, and this project is actually designed by the Yobe government,” he said.
He said the engagement would run for 22 months, beginning with a pilot phase involving seven mobilisers and seven facilitators from selected local government areas across Yobe.
The pilot phase covers Damaturu, Tarmuwa, Fune, Potiskum, Fika, Bade and Karasuwa local government areas before expansion to all 17 LGAs in the fourth quarter of 2026.
