Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, has advocated the scaling up of girl-child education and women empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sanusi who spoke 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, noted that, 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. 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,” Sanusi, the immediate-past emir of Kano, said.
Sanusi pointed out that providing the girl child an education and the opportunity to earn income and contribute meaningfully to the society was a single silver bullet that would address many of the other SDGs.
The former CBN chief said it had become imperative to emphasise the importance of quality teachers in curbing inequalities in learning outcomes, particularly, in under-served regions.
He regretted that currently, there’s a deficit of 69 million teachers globally, adding that, 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 said the aim of his project, ‘His Highness Muhammad Sanusi II Sustainable Development Goals (HHMSII SDGs) Challenge, was to assist teachers.
He said, the project aimed to inspire and catalyse teacher-led grassroots innovation that supported the achievement of SDGs, particularly quality education and gender equality.
“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,” he pointed out.
According to him, addressing SDG four (education) and SDG five (gender) was the most effective root to addressing all the other SDGs.
He said, so far, the programme had invited 35 teacher-led projects in its portfolio through its incubator and accelerator programmes while more than 2,000 teachers have been engaged through its open e-learning platform, and impacted more than 30,000 students.
