UBEC to empower over one million girls in LUMINAH 2030 initiative — Garba

The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education commission, (UBEC) Aisha Garba, has announced plan of the Commission to transform the lives of over one million under-served girls and women across Nigeria through a new LUMINAH 2030 Initiative.

Garba also announced the formal migration of the LUMINAH 2030 Initiative from the Federal Ministry of Education to UBEC as part of effort to ensure sustainability and long-term impact of the project.

The Nigerian Tribune gathered that the project would accelerate the efforts of the government over the challenge of high number of out-of-school children in the country, particularly through the empowerment of girls through education and skills development.

According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are 7.6 million girls who are out-of-school in Nigeria, noting that a total of 3.9 million of them are at the primary level and 3.7 million at the junior secondary level. This means that more than 50 per cent of the girls are not attending school at the basic education level.

Speaking at the opening of a five-day programme on LUMINAH 2030-UBEC Migration and Establishment Agenda, in Abuja, Garba, however, said the initiative represented a bold national drive to educate and economically empower one million under-served Nigerian girls by the year 2030.

“LUMINA illuminates the path to education and empowerment. It integrates schooling, skills training, caregiver support, and community engagement to address the root causes that have kept our girls out of school,” she said.

Represented by UBEC’s deputy executive secretary on Technical, Mr Razak Akinyemi, the UBEC boss commended the contributions of AGILE for the global support programme that had nurtured LUMINAH since inception and noted, however, that the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) international framework had a limited lifespan.

According to her, embedding LUMINAH within UBEC ensures institutionalisation, alignment with Nigeria’s education priorities, and a lasting legacy.

“By institutionalising LUMINA within UBEC, we will ensure that it does not fade away, but endure. It fully aligned with UBEC’s seven pillars in the 10-year roadmap (2021–2030) and the national education transformation agenda. Our expectations are clear; they are to deliver an inclusive, scalable, and data-driven model that reaches the most marginalised girls,” she said.

Garba outlined UBEC’s commitment to strong partnerships with state governments, civil society, the private sector, and local communities, while emphasising accountability and measurable impact through rigorous monitoring and evaluation.

She urged participants to treat the migration process as more than a formality, but as a transformational moment that must yield concrete actions.

“Every educator trained, every caregiver empowered, and every community mobilized is a victory for Nigeria,” she added.

Launched in March 2025 and assisted by the World Bank, the project is to educate and economically empower over one million underserved girls and women across Nigeria by 2030.

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Other objectives of the project are to provide vocational skills and financial support to female caregivers, establish flexible, safe leaning centres for girls, promote gender-equitable education policies, and build a scalable, data-driven model for national adoption.

The initiative is currently implemented and in the 12 pilot states of the federation including Yobe and Taraba in the North East, Kano and Jigawa in the North West.

Others are Benue and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, in the North Central, Ebonyi and Anambra in the South East as well as Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom States in the South-south.

Speaking earlier, the National Coordinator of the LUMINAH initiative, Mrs Amina Buba, described the transfer of the programme’s implementation structure as a “strategic step towards sustainability and impact.”

Buba said the transition was not just an administrative shift but a deliberate move to strengthen the institutional framework needed to deliver on the initiative’s ambitious goal of educating and economically empowering at least one million underserved adolescent girls by the year 2030.

She recalled that since its inception, the Ministry of Education, under the leadership of the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmed, had established strong governance structures, including a National Steering Committee chaired by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, as well as sub-committees co-chaired by ministry directors.

“With this migration to UBEC, we are embracing a more specialized and flexible system that will deepen stakeholder collaboration, enhance resource mobilization, and ultimately deliver measurable impact,”  Buba noted.

She urged all stakeholders to “innovate boldly and work together” to ensure that the promises of Lumina 2030 translate into tangible improvements in the lives of Nigerian adolescent girls.

On its part, the implementing partners of the LUMINAH 2030 initiative, Neem Foundation, said the project’s commitment to creating learning that integrates education with financial literacy and market-driven skills resonates deeply with the foundation’s, approach to education.

Represented by its Senior Programme Officer on Education, Minoe Duamwan, the Foundation noted that true learning can only thrive when education is combined with healing, resilience and empowerment.

“With our proven experience and technical expertise in trauma-informed education, Neem Foundation stands ready to support the implementation of this vision, LUMINAH 2030’s focus on financial inclusion, skill development, and collective participation aligned with our commitment to creating safe, inclusive spaces where girls can learn, heal, and lead,” Duamwan said.