The Katsina State Government, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UNICEF, aimed at promoting and sustaining child protection programme in the state.
The MoU signed on Tuesday in Katsina, also aimed to facilitate the establishment of adolescent girls’ hubs in Katsina and Mani Local Government Areas (LGAs).
The Special Adviser to Gov. Dikko Radda on girl child education and child development, Hajiya Jamila Abdu-Mani represented the state, while UNICEF was represented by Mr Rahama Farah, the Chief of the Kano Field Office at the signing ceremony.
The Permanent Secretary, Department of Girl Child Education, Alhaji Aminu Badaru-Jikamshi, in his remarks at the event said that the Katsina and Mani LGAs, as well as the Social Development Training Centre were part of the MoU.
Badaru-Jikamshi said that the MoU on the social workforce, also aimed to strengthen the pilot schemes for the benefit of the young adolescent girls and Almajiris.
”There’s no doubt that the official signing of the MoU underscores our collective commitment to promoting and sustaining the child protection programme in the state,” he said.
In the same vein, the UNICEF chief of the Kano field office, Farah, also expressed hope that the government would increase its investment to upscale the programme so it would cascade to other vulnerable groups.
According to him, the MoU is focusing on child protection, rights of the child, and also the international human rights instruments.
He explained that the instrument had already been ratified and endorsed by the Nigerian government, and also domesticated at the state level.
”We need to translate those laws, rules/regulations and policies into actions. We need to see these professional services provided to the most vulnerable groups,” he said.
He noted that in the state there was an estimated 4 million children as part of the population.
”We have huge number of children around there, and some of them are actually not in school, especially girls, they have either dropped out of school, or they have not even entered the school system.
”The almajiris is another vulnerable group which we also need to look at, because they are coming from probably vulnerable communities, vulnerable families and poverty is also affecting them,” he stressed.
Farah said it was expedient that these children were given a second chance to learn and earn at the same time, by providing them with skills so that they could become entrepreneurs.
In her response, the representative of the state government, Abdu-Mani, appreciated the commitment of UNICEF to the partnership and expressed hope that other partnerships would come.
She said that the synergy was important, because it would identify the challenges and bring solutions to underserved communities.
”I am optimistic that we the stakeholders will try our best to ensure that all efforts and resources reach the underserved communities of Katsina and Mani LGAs, especially in all our programmes,” she assured. (NAN)
