The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has commenced training of 35,000 adolescent girls in Katsina State in various entrepreneurial skills to enable them to become employable and self-reliant.

Adolescent Development Specialist, UNICEF Abuja, Ngozi Izuora-Songu, made this known Monday evening during the launch of the Skills4Girls Programme and Co-creation session with adolescent girls, held at the Tourist Lodge Hotel, Katsina.

Izuora-Songu said the training, which targets girls between 10 and 19 years, is to ensure that they are equipped with the necessary skills that would fetch them a livelihood, and at the end of the day, enable them to impact their communities positively.

She said the training would be held for girls in four Local Government Areas, including Katsina, Funtua, Kaita and Dutsi, adding that focus would be given to entrepreneurship development as well as how the girls can become employable in the future.

She said the training is an extension of other programmes implemented by UNICEF in Nigeria, but that Katsina was selected as the first state for the programme due to what she described as a learning gap between boys and girls in the state.

She said the programme is expected to span from 2026 to 2029, and that a total of 47,500 people, including the adolescent girls, are expected to benefit from the training.

She explained that part of the training would also be extended to 7,500 boys, as well as 5,000 teachers, mentors, trainers and community members in the selected council areas.

The UNICEF representative said girls who are in school or out of school, as well as those with physical disabilities, are among those selected to benefit from the training programme,

She, however, said the girls would first go through the theoretical aspect of the training where they would be asked to discuss viable skills present in their communities so that the programme can be tailored in line with what residents will patronize.

Also speaking, the Executive Chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Kabir Magaji, said the training, which is in collaboration with the board, would go a long way to assisting the girls to become less dependent on their family members.

Magaji said the programme, which is in line with the state government’s “Build Your Future” agenda, would complement what the current state administration is doing in promoting skills acquisition amongst youths in the state.

He, therefore, called on the beneficiaries to use the opportunity to learn all they can so that they can secure their future as well as those of their family members.