Dolapo Osinbajo,the wife of the Vice President on Thursday urged corporate bodies to offer more literacy opportunities to the girl child and the women,while noting however that lack of education limits prospects for women to excel in life and impacts on the society.
The wife of the vice President who spoke at the inaugural certification ceremony of the UNESCO-Procter and Gamble project tagged:”Empowerment of Girls and women through the use of ICTs in Literacy and Skills Development in Nigeria”-a programme focused at empowering the girl child urged Nigeria’s private sector to offer literacy and empowerment opportunities for the girl child.
Osinbajo said: “Education and empowerment would help children and the girl child to improve their own lives,make informed decision about their lives, avoid social vices and sexual exploitation,even become more aware of the risks of contracting HIV Virus.
I want to urge Nigeria’s private sector personalities to liaise with the UNESCO to increase the opportunities of acquiring knowledge through literacy,which would advance our development as a people and as a nation in the shortest possible time”
Speaking further on the importance of empowering the girl child,Osinbajo said: If the girl child is not empowered,it decreases family income,reduces both knowledge of the right nutrition for the child, increases the vulnerability of women and girl child to trafficking and contributes to depreciation the economic advancement of the women and the entire nation at large”
At the programme,Procter and Gamble empowered 7 500 women and girls on literacy and skills development through the use of ICT.
Meanwhile ,UNESCO-UIL Global Monitoring reports of 2015 have shown that nearly 60 percent of out of school children in Nigeria,live in the Northern part of the country.Of this figure,over 71 percent are girls and women.
As a result,Benioit Sossou,the director of Bureau at UNESCO noted that he collaboration with Procter and Gamble is aimed at accelerating national efforts to achieve the Education for All(EFA) goals,and the sustainable development goal 4 in Nigeria.
Notably,the Federal Government has offered $6.4 million self-benefiting Funds-in-Trust with UNESCO in 2013 for revitalising adult and Youth Literacy whose structures were used to ensure the UNESCO -Always supported project commenced implementation without hitches.
“With UNESCO’s commitment to complement the Federal Government’s continuing efforts to address the issue of illiteracy through Revitalising Adult and Youth Literacy project,UNESCO mobilised $1.6 million from P and G ALWAYS”Benoit noted.
Furthermore,Nada Dugas,director communication Procter and Gamble told BusinessDay that:
Always have a commitment that education and empowerment of the girl child is what we want to achieve as a brand. It has been something that we have been working on for over 25 years in Nigeria”
The partnership with UNESCO is one additional programme to girls on education and empowerment. We are targeting 170 000 girls by 2018 for empowerment”she added.
