Thumbs Up – Aisha Buhari To Unesco And P&g

BEVERLY HILLS, May 05, (THEWILL) – The Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has commended UNESCO and Procter and Gamble (P&G) for their joint project aimed at empowering 60,000 girls and women in Nigeria.

Buhari, represented by Mrs Dolapo Osibanjo, the Wife of the Vice-President, gave the commendation, on Thursday in Abuja, at the Graduation Ceremony of 7,500 Non-Formal Education Learners and Announcement of the 2nd Phase of the UNESCO-Always Skills Development Through the use of ICT in Nigeria.

She declared that adult literacy programmes coupled with skills acquisition, such as the programme being implemented by UNESCO, can help girls to enrol and stay in schools.

“First of all, I wish to commend the strong partnership between UNESCO and P&G in the progress of education especially to girls and women who are the most disadvantaged population in our country today,” she said.

“I believe we are all aware that like many countries of the world, our women and girls in Nigeria are often denied the opportunity of education.

“It is widely known that lack of education limits the prospects for women and girls to excel in life; it decreases family income; it reduces knowledge of good nutrition and health; it increases vulnerability and puts women and girls at the risk of trafficking and exploitation.

“All of these contribute to limiting the economic advancement of women and indeed of the entire nation.”

In his address, UNESCO's Regional Director, Nigeria, Mr Benoit Sossou, said that the organisation's 2015 reports showed that 60 per cent of out of school children in Nigeria lived in the North while 71 per cent of the figure was girls and women.

“Our collaboration with P&G is aimed at accelerating and underpinning national efforts to achieve the Education for All(EFA) goals especially, goals three, four and five; MDGs two and three, and now the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) four in Nigeria,” he said.

“The project is specially targeted to support 60,000 girls and women to acquire basic literacy, numeracy and life and vocational skills.

“These beneficiaries comprise illiterate girls and women who have never been to school due to one challenge or the other.

“Those that dropped out of school a bit too early before they could acquire any foundational skill and young girls who are in school but are at risk of dropping out due to poor performance.”

Story by David Oputah