The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment AGILE Project in Zamfara State has announced that, the first phase of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) disbursement for adolescent girls students will commence in this month of July.
The Conditional Cash Transfer Officer of the AGILE project in Zamfara State, Hajiya Umma Salma Abubakar Usman made this known while interactive with Journalist in Gusau the Zamfara State Capital on the programme.
According to her, the payment process is currently in the final stages while the student ATMs is currently under production.
Hajiya UmmaSalma assured that, by this month of July, the validated students would start receiving their payments while some have already begun getting text messages of their account numbers.
She explained that the CCT initiative was introduced specifically to support economically disadvantaged parents, enabling them to keep their daughters in school.
The programme officer also highlighted the security challenges in Zamfara State, which have left many women widowed and without the financial strength to educate their children.
“This is why the CCT component was introduced into the AGILE project,” she said.
She emphasized that, AGILE does not take children to school directly but rather visits schools to identify and enroll eligible students into the program.
“Under AGILE, we do not collect any fees for student registration,” she added.
Hajiya UmmaSalma Abubukar further explained that, the program targets girls in Primary 6 and JSS 3, because are key transition points where parents are required to buy new uniforms, shoes, school bags, and pay enrollment fees into new schools such as JSS1 or SS1.
“If a parent can’t even afford basic food items like millet or maize, how would they think of sending their daughter to school at such a crucial point?” she asked.
“Even if schools are renovated, if poor parents are not financially supported, many children will still remain at home. That’s why this intervention became necessary,” Ummusalma explained.
She said that enrollment is being done by using official school registers and that students are called one by one for proper documentation.
"Each student must be accompanied by her mother or a close relative for the capturing of their name, photo, Bank Verification Number (BVN), and phone number before final validation.
She added that payments are being made in batches ranging from ₦15,000 to ₦25,000.
Hajiya UmmuSalma Abubakar emphasized that, students must maintain at least 70% attendance in school to qualify for the next phase of the payment.
Also contributing, Bashir Kabiru Ahmad, the AGILE Project Communications Officer, stated that, the initiative is fully committed to improving the education of adolescent girls, under the leadership of Hajiya Sa’adatu Abdu Gusau.
Alhaji Bashir Ahmad expressed happiness that, more people are beginning to understand what AGILE is all about, and they are now even helping to explain it to one another.
According to him, the AGILE intervention covers several areas, including Construction and renovation of schools, Teaching of computer literacy, Vocational skills training, Provision of clean water and toilets in schools snd tackling all barriers that hinder school attendance
Alhaji Bashir Ahmad explained that, the ultimate goal is to ensure that every girl remains in school until she completes her education.
“Sometimes, even the lack of water alone is enough to stop a girl from going to school.”
He called for increased public awarenes, noting that petty trading or home responsibilities should not be allowed to keep girls away from school.
