Nigeria: Ekiti Distributes 2,600 Laptops to Secondary Schools

The laptops were distributed in Ado-Ekiti under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Project (AGILE), a World Bank scheme.

The Ekiti State Government distributed 2,600 laptops to 100 secondary schools on Tuesday to aid learning and development of skills.

The distribution was done in Ado-Ekiti under the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Project (AGILE), a World Bank scheme.

The wife of the governor, Olayemi Oyebanji, said at the event that the AGILE programme would complement the government's free education programme.

"The AGILE project is designed to respond to the challenges and constraints adolescent girls faced in accessing and completing secondary school education.

"I am glad that the project is supporting the state's efforts at enhancing academic, digital and life skills of our adolescents.

"It gives fillip to the government's determination to groom a mass of adequately equipped youths who are global-ready" she said.

She assured that 900 laptops would be distributed to 35 schools, while 65 other schools would get 1,600 laptops in the next two months.

The scheme allocated 25 million dollars to Ekiti to provide laptop computers, renovate schools and provide instructional materials to empower mainly adolescent girls to keep them comfortably in school.

In her remarks, the state's deputy governor, Monisade Afuye, commended the state government for partnering with the World Bank for the full implementation of AGILE scheme to boost girl-child's access to education.

She said the scheme would help to stem spiralling teenage pregnancies, early marriages and school dropout figures - the cankerworms destroying the society and creating gender imbalance.

She lamented that thousands of girls dropped out of school because of poverty, saying AGILE is a veritable opportunity for girls of poor backgrounds to climb the ladder of education without encumbrances.

Mrs Afuye stressed that the AGILE scheme would catapult e-learning to a higher pedestal for Ekiti students to compete with their counterparts elsewhere.

Also addressing the ceremony, Chairman, Ekiti House of Assembly Committee on Education, Bode Adeoye, pledged Legislature's readiness to initiate legislation to institutionalise the programme for sustainability.

"As ally to the Executive arm of government, we shall support this project.

"Education is the main industry in our dear state, so promoting girl-child education is one priority we should all support.

"Women are no longer taking the backseat in Ekiti. We know that AGILE will also help in widening the girl-child's access to education," he said.

The AGILE coordinator in the state, Yewande Adesua, who stressed the importance of the AGILE scheme appreciated the state government for taking up the challenge.

(NAN)

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.