The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has pledged to allocate at least 15 per cent of their annual budgets to the education sector, with an emphasis on the girl child, in a bid to improve the quality of education in the country.

Chairman of the forum and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, disclosed this Friday in his closing remarks after a two-day International Conference on Girl Child Education in Nigeria, with the theme, “Girl Child Empowerment through Quality Education,” held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Represented by the Director-General of the forum, Abdulateef Shittu, the NGF Chairman said, “Our commitment as a forum to education financing, especially girl child education funding, is unwavering across the states.

“We declare our readiness to meet the international benchmark of at least 15% annual budgetary allocation to the education sector.”

AbdulRazaq described the unveiling of Girl Education Ambassadors as pivotal to the collective drive to address issues of access to education and the learning poverty of Nigerian children.

He explained that the initiative aims to engage over 774,000 Girl Child Education Volunteers’ Advocates (GICEVA) across all local government areas in Nigeria annually.

“Through their collective efforts and in partnership with the Gender Desk Officers of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), NGF will engage over 774,000 Girl Child Education Volunteers’ Advocates across the 774 Local Government Areas annually for access and quality education advocacy projects,” the chairman further explained.

The Governors’ Forum also announced a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Youth through the NYSC to establish a Girl Child Education Community Service Group.

This group will be integral to addressing the out-of-school children challenge, focusing on primary school enrollment, foundational literacy and numeracy, and teacher capacity training.

As part of their commitment to transparency, the Forum presented an Education Expenditure and Institutional Review report covering 2021-2023 for the states.

The forum Chairman said, “We are committed to having a vision for the Education Community of Practice intervention framework for enrollment advocacy, funding support, and quality education scale-up.”

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy, said that the Federal Government will begin to remove out-of-school children from the streets starting October 15, 2024.

She explained that the initiative, which is aimed at addressing the growing number of children without access to education, is set to make a significant impact.

The minister noted the significance of this step, stating, “Picking those children from the streets will enable the government to have access to their parents, especially their mothers.”

The program will not only focus on the children but will also extend support to their families, particularly empowering mothers to provide for their children.

“The Federal Government has a plan to empower out-of-school children’s mothers so they can cater to their children,” Kennedy explained.

She called on all relevant stakeholders and Nigerians to join efforts in empowering underprivileged women across the nation.