As reported by Nigerian Tribune, the Kwara State Government, in partnership with the World Bank, has constituted and trained members of Grievance Redress Committees (GRCs) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) focal persons in 898 Junior and Senior Secondary Schools across the state.

Speaking at the training workshop in Ilorin on Wednesday, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, represented by the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hon. Sa’adatu Modibbo-Kawu, said the initiative is part of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project, supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and the World Bank. The programme aims to enhance secondary education opportunities for girls in targeted areas.

The governor emphasized that the project focuses on improving access, retention, and completion rates of secondary school education among girls.

The training was scheduled to take place for a period of two weeks, across the 16 local government areas of the state, with the constitution and training divided into nine clusters for a maximum impact.

Two clusters were located in Ilorin, three clusters in Oro, and one each in Offa, Lafiagi, Okuta, and Kaiama.

“In the course of the project implementation, grievances are inevitable. Mechanisms have to be put in place to mitigate and allow timely resolution without recourse to escalation.

“Therefore, appropriate bodies to address grievances and gender based violence in each school was constituted and effectively trained. Each school attended the training with three personnel; the School Principal, The representative of the Community Head and a female School Guidance Counsellor”. As part of accruable benefits of the AGILE project, the governor said that there would be renovation of all public secondary schools in the state, new construction of schools in places mapped out, provision of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities, Conditional Cash Transfer, Life Skills, Second Chance Education and digital literacy.

Governor Abdulrazaq, who said that N150 million was paid as counterpart funds for the AGILE project in August 2022, added that the move attested to his administration’s commitment to girls’ education.

“Thanks to the proactive nature of the governor, Kwara is one of the eleven (11) Additional Financing (AF) States to benefit from the project, having fulfilled the World Bank requirements.

“Seven parent states keyed into the project first and these include; Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and Plateau States”.

Also speaking, the national Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) officer from the National Project Coordinating Unit (NPCU), Mr. Emmanuel Erinms, commended Kwara State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) for being the first state among the Additional Financing (AF) States of AGILE to commence the constitution and training of GBV and GRC Focal Persons in all public secondary schools, adding that, AGILE is the first project targeting adolescent girls’ education in Nigeria and described Kwara as a pacesetter.

Mr. Erinms, thereafter, congratulated Kwara state, for being one of the participating states to benefit from the project.

Also, the Project Coordinator, Kwara AGILE, Mr. Adeshina Azeez Salami, who noted that there are bound to be conflicts during project implementation, said that “it is, therefore, necessary that grievances that arise under the project are appropriately channelled, documented and resolved on time, with fairness and empathy to complainants.