Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, has made a clarion call for the girl-child education and overall empowerment of women in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sanusi made the call at a three-day Transforming Education Summit tagged ‘Transforming Education through Grassroots Innovation: A Localised Teacher-Led Approach’ on the sidelines of the ongoning UN General Assembly in New York.
The former CBN boss, who was the 14th Emir of Kano, said he had devoted his lifetime to advancing the cause of the girl-child, women empowerment and gender equality.
“I have had a lifetime commitment and advocacy to access to quality education and gender equality,” Sanusi, the immediate-past Emir of Kano, said.
“In my work as governor of the central bank, I pushed for gender representation at the highest levels, in the boards and management of the banks.
“And as Emir or Kano, I pushed for codification of putting law to address the Rights of Women.
“As an SDGs advocate, I have focused on girl child education in particular, as the main SDG that I’m focused on are SDG four and SDG five,” he said.
Sanusi argued that the solution to many of the other SDGs was to give girls the opportunity to receive an education, earn an income, and make a significant contribution to society.
“I am often asked why I advocate for the girl child and my response is simple: if you educate the girl child, you deal with so many other socio-economic issues and make progress towards breaking the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy and poverty.”
According to the former CBN Head, it was now crucial to stress the role that effective teachers have in reducing learning outcomes inequities, especially in underserved areas.
He regretted that currently, “there’s a deficit of 69 million teachers” globally adding, many of those who are at work, especially in Sub Saharan Africa, Southern Africa, and Southern Asia, lacked basic qualifications and training to keep pace with changes in education.
Sanusi expressed the goal of his project, ‘His Highness Muhammad Sanusi II Sustainable Development Goals (HHMSII SDGs) Challenge, was to assist teachers.
According to him, the project aimed to encourage and spark teacher-led grassroots innovation that aided in the accomplishment of the SDGs, notably gender equality and high-quality education.
“We are fostering the limitless potential of teachers to nurture their ideas and innovations. And in doing so, to create a radical transformation in education systems throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
“In particular, we have our female teachers, because we know approaching educational change this way is better for girls, better for the communities in which they live, and critical to addressing the other SDGs.”
According to him, addressing SDG four (education) and SDG five (gender) was the most effective root to addressing all the other SDGs.
“Teachers are a powerful force. Each teacher will directly impact a minimum of 3,000 students in their career, and many more students indirectly.
“Therefore, there cannot be quality education if the teachers do not have the right competence and tools to impact students positively.
“Only by engaging and empowering teachers, particularly those closest to the problem, can we implement solutions that truly transform our education systems,” Sanusi said.
He said so far, the programme had received 35 teacher-led projects in its portfolio through its incubator and accelerator programmes while more than 2000 teachers have been engaged through its open e-learning platform, and impacted more than 30,000 students.
In 2023, Sanusi said the project would advance its portfolio ten-fold through the launch of its pre-incubator programme.
“I’m very delighted at the dynamic selection of all cohorts so far. And this is evidence that the implementation of SDG four and five in Africa is attainable.
“There’s still challenges in the report, which showcase brilliant educational projects from our cohorts covering different aspects of education, from novel curricula to foundational skills and complex populations.”
The former CBN governor said the project was unique highlighting it was bottom-up rather than a top-down approach.
“We ask ordinary teachers working in villages and towns in Africa, to come up with ideas for how they can improve education of their children and we selected from among them, cohorts, providing them with training, refine their ideas, and give them financial support to upscale.”
In 2020, the Muhammad Sanusi II SDGs Challenge was introduced, with the first cohort of 10 project leaders each receiving a $500 initial grant, a follow-up award of $10,000, and the necessary training to advance their projects.
In June 2022, applications for cohort two became available. More than 1,700 applications were received, and 25 creative projects from eight African nations were chosen.
The countries are Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Gambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, and girls were the focus of around 52% of the programs.
Cohort Two will receive a $2,000 initial grant, with the possibility of additional funding of $10,000 per cohort at the acceleration stage. In December 2022, there will be a showcase event for the selection of an accelerator program.
