Jigawa council approves ₦1.48bn projects and girls' education policy
- Jigawa State Executive Council approved ₦1,478,046,426.30 for projects in all 30 constituencies.
- The projects include mosques, homes of traditional rulers, graveyard walls and solar systems.
- The council also endorsed a gender in education policy backed by the AGILE project.
The Jigawa State Executive Council has approved ₦1,478,046,426.30 for projects in each of the state's 30 constituencies, and backed a new policy aimed at getting more girls into school and keeping them there.
The Commissioner for Information, Youth, Sports and Culture, Alhaji Sagir Musa, briefed journalists after the council meeting at the Government House in Dutse on Monday.
He said the constituency projects were chosen to fit the needs of each area. They include building, finishing and repairing mosques used for Friday and daily prayers, and work on the homes of district and village heads.
The list also covers interlocking paving, walls around graveyards, solar power installations, generators, and prayer carpets that will be supplied and fitted.
According to Musa, the aim is to improve community facilities and give support to religious and traditional institutions.
What the education policy does
The council also approved the Jigawa State Policy on Gender in Education, along with guidelines for putting it into practice.
The policy is meant to widen access to quality education for every child, whether a boy or a girl, and whatever the family's income.
It was put together with help from the Jigawa State Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project.
Musa said the policy targets the social and cultural barriers, and harmful practices, that stop children, especially teenage girls, from enrolling and finishing school.
It also sets out ways to build up institutions, bring communities into the effort, and get government agencies, development partners, traditional and religious leaders and parents working together.
The state said the policy fits Nigeria's education priorities and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 4 on quality education and Goal 5 on gender equality.
For ordinary families in Jigawa, the education plan matters because girls who stay in school are more likely to finish their studies and earn better later. The constituency projects, meanwhile, put money into local facilities rather than distant state-level schemes.
What happens next will depend on how the state releases the funds and how quickly the education guidelines are rolled out in schools. The briefing did not give a timetable for either.
