Friday, July 17, 2026

Niger govt to support 125,000 out-of-school children

Ms Bello explained that the project would be implemented across the 25 local government areas in the state.

• August 23, 2022
Gov's wife Amina Bello
Amina Bello of Niger state

The Niger State government says it will use the At-Risk Project (ARC-P) of the federal government to empower at least 125,000 out-of-school children in the state.

Amina Bello, the wife of the state governor, said this at a two-day stakeholders workshop on the implementation of the At-Risk children programme in Minna on Tuesday.

Ms Bello explained that the project would be implemented across the 25 local government areas in the state, where 1,250 youths would be trained as facilitators to mentor and monitor vulnerable children on lifetime skills.

“The project will be implemented in two batches, 1,250 unemployed youths will be trained as facilitators, and each of them will be assigned 50 children in the first batch and another 50 children in the second to mentor them on lifetime skills,” she explained.

She explained further that the project was an intervention “that offers a multi-dimensional broad-spectrum approach to address the about 13.2 million out-of-school children as estimated by UNICEF in Nigeria”.

According to her, the northern part of the country, including Niger, has been devastated, accounting for 69 per cent of the disadvantaged children scattered across the region.

She stressed that the state government was committed to seeking innovative approaches to promote inclusion and equity in access to education and leverage digital innovation opportunities.

This, she said, was to ensure the empowerment of the girl-child and other underrepresented groups.

Earlier in his remarks, Ahmed Matane, the Secretary to the State Government, lauded the federal government for initiating the project meant to provide solutions to the documented vulnerabilities of children lacking essential social protection across an array of needs.

He gave assurance that the state government would leverage the existing state initiatives and programmes to provide support and strengthen efforts for effective implementation of the project in the state.

In her address, Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, said that the project targeted vulnerable groups to address their challenges.

Ms Uwais said this was expected to be done using a roadmap developed by Niger with data to equip children with lifetime skills to make them self-reliant.

(NAN)

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.

More from Peoples Gazette

farmers

Agriculture

FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology

The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Katsina State

Politics

Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku

“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Centre for Democracy and Development

NationWide

CDD tasks Nigerian leaders on community development

Ugwe Benedict, one of the school administrators, said the project would bring relief to the school.

World Customs Organisation

NationWide

Nigeria, Benin bust smugglers in first intelligence-led border operation

According to the organisation, the operation followed a rigorous training programme.

Children

NationWide

Investing in children strengthens Nigeria’s future: UNICEF

Ms Russell noted that Nigeria’s public health challenges could be overcome through strong leadership.

Economic Commission for Africa

Africa

ECA seeks skills harmonisation to boost youth employment in Africa

The event focused on transforming informal work into sustainable livelihoods for young people.

LEGISLATIVE GAVEL

States

Police arraign Nigerian student for allegedly impersonating U.S. resident

He said the offence contravened Section 484 of the Criminal Laws of Oyo State, 2000.

Nigeria Forest Security Service

States

Anambra partners with NFSS to strengthen forest conservation

The Anambra State Ministry of Environment is partnering with the Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS) to strengthen forest conservation.