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The center for information technology and development CITAD, has organized student creativity competition among Junior and Senior secondary school in Jama’are local government.
Malam Ahmad Yakasai of CITAD while speaking at the one day competition with a title Marai on the Marble in Jammare recently,” He said this is part of CITAD effort of promoting educational development and revival of reading culture in the state.
According to him, Several junior and senior secondary schools took part in the competition that shows that the number of participating schools has increased over the last year’s event.
He said the competition was categories into four which comprises, Debate,Quiz Poem/ poetry and Story telling.
“Seven schools participated in all of the events and won different prizes.
“The participating schools Government Arabic College includes,Government Day Secondary School Jama’are, Hassan Muhammad Senior secondary school jama’are, Wabi Academy,M C Abubakar Junior secondary school Jamaare, Ahmad Mohammad Wabi Junior Secondary School Jama’ar and Jibwis Science,” he said
Yakasai however commended the schools, teachers and the students for their devotion and commitment during competition, urged the schools to keep the tempo of commeptition as it will go a long way in promoting creativity among students.
In his remark, the chairman of the competition who is also the education secretary of Jama’are Local Education Authority Mal. Zakariyya Jibril stated that CITAD has always engaged in promoting and reviving of educational development in jama’are through creating extracurricular activities in Jamaare.
Jibril applauded CITAD for the wonderful and remarkable effort of promoting educational development in jama’are.
The Education Secretary urged other NGOs and Philanthropist to emulate CITAD in development of educational and creativity among students.
Our correspondent reports that at the end of competition of Seven schools that participated Jibwis Science Emerged 1st and Wabi academy 2nd GDSS Hassan Muhammad occupied the 3rd position.
The winners left with consulation gift Television, Bycles, handsets, jam forms as well as radio sets.

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The North East has the worse education indices in the country. It has the lowest enrollment rates, the lowest completion rates and yet the worse teacher-student ratio.  The region’s performance in the NECO and WASC as well as JAMB has been at the bottom of the national ranking. Consequently, it has the least number of admissions to tertiary institutions. By the same token, it has the least number of graduates per population in the country.

This poor educational performance is partly responsible for also the high youth unemployment situation in the region. It is also implicated in the worse poverty incidence in the country.

Both unemployment and poverty are key factors in the growth and flourishing of the Boko Haram Insurgency which has devastated the region, making the situation worse. Social infrastructure such as schools, markets, factories, etc have been destroyed. As a result, more youth have been thrown out of employment. Many people have lost their means of livelihood.  Both of these have increased poverty and unemployment. School enrollment has further deteriorated due to long close of schools, destruction of education facilities and the killings of both teachers and students by the insurgents. The abduction of students, particularly the female student of Chibok, has brought a set back in girl child education as both parents and children fear about more abductions.

Given this,it is imperative that a multi-pronged strategy is needed to reboot and accelerate the educational progress and development of the region. As part of this effort, CITAD in collaboration with  Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola (MAUTECH)  is organizing the first North East Books and Education Conference and Exhibition (NEBECE).

Goal

Contribute to reviving education in the region

Objectives

1. Provide a platform for stakeholders to deliberate and strategize on revamping education in the region
2. Raise awareness on reviving reading culture which is critical to education progress
3. To provide an opportunity for states governments in the region to explain to donor organizations the specific problems they have in addressing education issues
4. Promote book trade and publishing in the region as part of the effort to revive education
5. Harvest ideas on addressing the myriad of problems of education in the north east

Forms and Format

The North East Books and Education Conference and Exhibition (NEBECE) will hold for three days and will consist of the following complimentary events and activities:

1. Conference on Education
2. Book and other educational products Exhibition
3. Literary Events
4. Student Creativity Competition

Conference Theme

The theme of the conference is Education in the Northeast in the Context of Reconstruction, Rebuilding and Resettlement in the Region

Conference Sub-themes

The sub-themes of the conference:

1. The State of Education Infrastructure in the North East
2. Tertiary Education and Pipelining in the North East
3. Tackling the Problems of Basic Education in the North East
4. Girl Child Education in the Context of Post Insurgency
5. The Place and Role of Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education in Rebuilding of the North East
6. Teacher Production Capacity in the North East
7. Gender, Education and Cultural Issues in the North East
8. Understanding and Overcoming Poor Performance of North East States in National Examinations in the North East
9. Impact of Insurgency on Education in the North East
10. The Digital Divide and the Education Sector in the North East
11. The Place of Religion in Education in the North East
12. Religious Education and Religious Education institutions in the North East

Conference Structure

The conference will consist of plenary, parallel sessions and flying shop sessions. A side of the Opening session, there would be five other plenary sessions, two on each date. Together these plenary sessions will allow the lead paper in each sub themes be presented at the plenary while other papers would feature at the parallel panels.The flying shopping sessions will have state and other agencies show case their work. However, instead of them making presentation to at either panel or plenary session each showcase presenters will stay in one place and a small group of say 10-15 at the time would be his/her shop and listen to the presentation for 10 minutes and move to the next showcase and each group will go round as many showcase stands as possible.

Key Note

Mal Adamu Adamu, Ministry of Education

Lead Presentation

It is proposed that lead presentations would come from the following:

1. Garba D. Azare, Teacher Production Capacity in the North East
2. Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi (NITDA), The Digital Divide in the Northeast and its Implications to the Education Progress on the Region
3. H. Bobboi, UBEC Contribution to Revamping Education in the North East
4. Sadiqque Abubakar, The Poor Performance of the Northeast in National Examinations: Evidence from NECO
5. Prof Abubakar A. Rasheed, The State of Tertiary Education in the North West
6. Sulaiman Elias Bogoro: An Overview of Tetfund Intervention in the North East
7. M. Kazaure, The Challenge of Technical and Vocational Education in the North East
8. Asmau Joda: Addressing Girl Child  Education in the North East
9. Saudatu Mahdi : Mainstreaming Gender Issues in Transforming Education in the North East
10. Impact of Conflict in the Education Sector in the Northeast by Prof Rabiu Mohammad
11. Can we create our own Silicon Valley in the Northeast?  Kole Shettima
12. Politics and Education Development in the Northeast  by Prof Jibrin Ibrahim
13. Reviving Public Libraries in the Northeast by Dr.  Musa Auyo
14. How to Address Almajiranci in the Northeast
15. Addressing Child Health as Key to Enhancing Educational Performance by Hussaini Abdu

Participants

1. Northeast Development Commission
2. All ministries of Education of the states of the North east
3. Donor organizations and international development partners
4. SUBEB from all the six states of the North East
5. Universities in the North East region
6. State and national legislators
7. Books Publishers across the country
8. Major bookshops and booksellers
9. Civil society organizations
10. Community Organizations
11. Professional Associations
12. Students
13. Media organizations

Organizing Partners

1. Northeast Development Commission (NEDC)
2. Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola
3. Channel Television (media partners)
4. Peace Air (Travels partners)
5. Daily Trust (print media)

Supporting Organizations

1. Federal Ministry of Education
2. Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund)
3. National Teachers Institution (NTI)
4. Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)
5. National Technology Development Agency (NITDA)
6. All state governments in the North East
7. National Universities Commission (NUC)
8. USAID
9. MacArthur Foundation
10. Action Aid International (Nigeria)

Host State

Adamawa State

Participation

Members of the public, especially education policy makers, scholars and policy administrators, publishers, books distributors and others are cordially invited to participate. For more information contact the Organizing Chairman, Committee either by phone (08064867312) or by email (nebece@citad.org). You can also visit the conference site (www.nebece.ng).

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in partnership with the Modibbo Adamawa University of Technology, Yola is, as part of the first North East Books and Education Conference and Exhibition (NEBECE), organizing a three-day the Northeast Books and ICT Exhibition. The objectives of the exhibition are:

1. Promote book and learning instruction trade and publishing in the region as part of the effort to revive education
2. Bring markets and users of ICT tools together
3. Raise awareness on reviving reading culture which is critical to education progress
4. Stimulate the culture of publishing in the region

Participants at the both the exhibition and conference include:

1. Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNI)
2. All ministries of Education of the states of the North east
3. Donor organizations and international development partners
4. SUBEB from all the six states of the North East
5. Universities in the North East region
6. Libraries
7. State and national legislators
8. Books Publishers across the country
9. Major bookshops and booksellers

• ICT equipment manufacturers and markets
• ICT Solution Providers
• Civil society organizations
• Community Organizations
• Professional Associations
• Students
• Media organizations

Exhibition Dates: 20-22, November, 2019

Exhibition Site: Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State

Exhibition Stand Fee: Twenty Thousand Naira (N20, 000.00) per stand

Registration

All interested publishers, ICT companies, books distributors, booksellers, bookshops, libraries, books collectors, etc are invited to register at online at www.nebece.ng . For more information, contact the Secretary, Exhibition Committee, either phone (08064867312) or by email (nebece@citad.org).

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in partnership the Modibbo Adamawa University of Technology, Yola is, as part of the first North East Books and Education Conference and Exhibition (NEBECE), organizing a three-day Conference on Revamping Education in the North East. The objective of the conference is to interrogate educational development in the region with a view to coming out with recommendations on how myriad of problem bedeviling the sector in the region can be addressed.

The conference envisages two key outcomes, a policy brief and an edited book out of a selection of some of the presentations.  This is an invitation to for interested academics to submit papers for presentation at the conference

Conference Dates: 20-22, November, 2019

Conference Host: Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State

Conference Theme: Education in the Northeast in the Context of Reconstruction, Rebuilding and Resettlement in the Region

 

Sub themes

The sub-themes of the conference:

1. The State of Education Infrastructure in the North East
2. Tertiary Education and Pipelining in the North East
3. Tackling the Problems of Basic Education in the North East
4. Girl Child Education in the Context of Post Insurgency
5. The Place and Role of Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education in Rebuilding of the North East
6. Teacher Production Capacity in the North East
7. Gender, Education and Cultural Issues in the North East
8. Understanding and Overcoming Poor Performance of North East States in National Examinations in the North East
9. Impact of Insurgency on Education in the North East
10. The Digital Divide and the Education Sector in the North East
11. The Place of Religion in Education in the North East
12. Religious Education and Religious Education institutions in the North East

Submission

Interested scholars and policy administrators interested in making presentation should submit an abstract of not more than 300 words, indicating the specific sub-theme under which they will make their contributions. Such abstracts should be sent to nebece@citad.org on or before 21^st, October, 2019. Authors of accepted abstracts would be informed by October 30, 2019.

For more information contact the Chairman, Conference Committee, Prof Amina Kaidal either phone (08064867312) or by email (nebece@citad.org). You can also visit the conference site (www.nebece.ng).

As part of its effort of promoting educational development and revival of reading culture in Jama’are, the center for information technology and development CITAD, has organized a one-day student creativity competition Title “Marai on the Marble” on 5^th October 2019. The competition is an inter-school competition that invites participation of both Junior as and Senior schools in Jamaare local government of Bauchi state.

The competition started with an opening prayer offered by Sarkin yakin Jamaare, Alhaji Sabo Likita. In his opening speech, Malam Ahmad Yakasai who represented the Executive Director of CITAD, Dr. Yunusa Ya’u stated the aims and objective of the competition. He also urged the participants to abide by the rules and regulation governing the competition while the program continued as scheduled respectively.

The number of participating schools from both junior and senior schools was seven which shows an increment of interest and participation of school from last year competition. The schools include:

1. Government Arabic College
2. Government Day Secondary School, Jama’are
3. Hassan Muhammad Senior Secondary School, jama’are
4. Wabi Academy
5. C. Abubakar Junior Secondary School, Jamaare
6. Ahmad Mohammad Wabi Junior Secondary School, Jama’are
7. Jibwis Science School

The competition was chaired by the Education Secretary of Jama’are Local Education Authority, Mal. Zakariyya Jibril. He commended CITAD for its effort and engagements in promoting the revival of educational development in Jama’are through creating extracurricular activities initiatives like the competition.

The competition has four components which included:

1. Debate
2. Quiz
3. Poem/ poetry
4. Story telling

 

1. Debates
2. The debate has comprised three panels of judgesincluding Malam Muhammad Sani Abdullahi and Malam Aliyu Muh’d Nasir, both from Department of English, College of Education, Azare, and Salihu Abdullahi of Etrash2cash. Six schools took part in the debate where Hassan Muhammad Senior Secondary School Jama’are, Jibwis Science and M. C. Abubakar Junior Secondary School emerged 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd positions in the debate,Quiz

Seven schools took part in the quiz aspect of the 2019 competiton where each school supposed to answer 7 questions from the quiz set questions.  Wabi Academy answered 5 questions and earned 15 points, GAC Jama’are answered 4 question out of seven and earned 12 points, M C Abubakar answer 3 questions out of seven and earned 9 point,  Hassan Muhammad GDSS answered 2 question out and earned 6 point, Jibwis science also earned 3 points by answering only 1 question, while  Ahmad Mohammed Wabi earned 0 point by not answering any of the question asked.. At the end of quiz Wabi Academy, GAC Jama’are, and MC Abubakar Emerged as winners of the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd postions respectively.3^rd position respectively.

Story telling

Six schools took part in this event and MC Abubakar, Jibwis Science 2^nd and GDSS Hassan Muhammad Emerged as the 3 winners of the 1^st, second and the third position

Poetry

Seven schools participated in this event where Jibwis Science Emerged 1^st, Wabi academy 2^nd, and GDSS Hassan Muhammad 3^rd.

At the end of the event the schools were given the following prizes:

S/N	Type of Competition	1st POSITION	2nd POSITION	3rd POSITION
1	DEBATES	Television Set	Handset	Radio Set
2	POETRY	Television Set	Bicycle	Hand set
3	QUIZ	Television Set	Handset	Radio Set
4	STORY TELLING	Bicycle	JAMB Form	Radio Set

The event was attended and witnessed by the following dignitaries:

1. Alhaji Sabo Likita, Sarkin Yakin Jamaare.
2. Zakariyya Jibril, Education Secretary of Jamaare Local Education Authority.
3. Alhaji Kawu Chadi, Staff Officer of Jamaare Local Government whorepresented the Care Taker Chairman of Jamaare Local Government.
4. Alhaji Aliyu Hanafari Representative Of Member Bauchi State House Of Assembly
5. Alhaji Haruna Sabo representing Tafidan Jamaare
6. Alhaji Hussaini Manu,a Prominent Teacher of the JamaareCommunity
7. Alhaji Adamu Iliya

Etc.

Success Story

1. One of the interesting success stories from the 2019 competition is the increased number of participating schools compare to last year event which indicate increasing interest and commintments in promoting education in Jaamare.
2. There are number of schools that tie up their belt and won lots of prices over the last year, eg GDSS Hassan Moh’d Did not won anything last year, but this year dominated the prices these shown that the competition has improved their readiness and reading calture of the entire schools.

Giving a vote of thanks, Malam Ahmad Yakasai thanked and appreciated those that donated to the event especially the Member House of Reps Alhaji basher Uba Mashema, Alhaji Member Bauchi state House of assembly, Sale Muhammed and Alhaji Musa Tukur who also donated who donated the sum of 20000 each, , Suleiman umar Imam and Anas Wada Ali Hanafari who both donated the sum of 10000, and lastly Alhaji Abdullahi Fatal of Maitama store. Malam Ahmad also presented commendation letters were also presented to the Panel of Judges.

Malam Isyaku Garba of CITAD offered the closing remarks where he thanked those that participated in the event for honoring the invitations and wished all safe journey Back home.

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Goal: to contribute to addressing the problem of unemployment and youth joblessness by nurturing

Objectives

1. Provide space for youth aspiring entrepreneurs and technology developers to work unhindered by either power, connectivity or facility challenges
2. Provide continuing support for mentoring services to the youth through access to highly accomplished professionals and business people
3. Provide a link between youth solution providers and the market such that such market demands should be a vehicle to drive local productivity, innovation and creativity rather than sourcing such needs from outside
4. Create a space for technology experimentation, innovation and creativity by youth people
5. Support the growth of small scale enterprises through technology and business incubation which would be a vehicle for economic recovery of the region

Components

The tHub is a suite of youth development platform and services consisting of the following:

1. Entrepreneurs work space: Here youth who are unemployed but have ideas on some technological innovation or creativity that they are working on can be have access to work space, connectivity, IT facilities and power for them to work and create technology solutions.
2. Technology Incubation: Incubatorship is similarly to the works space however in this, participants have already conceptualized their business plan and set up their enterprises. The goal here is to enable innovators and creators to drive their products to the make through a series of business facilitation process. The incubatorship will provide a wide range of business development services that encompasses a large spectrum of activities all aimed at developing new business organizations. These include:

1. 1. Information provision:
   2. Sensitization:
   3. Business incubator programmes:
   4. Business mentoring:
   5. Business linkages:

1. Business establishment facilitation services

3. Skill Development
   1. Mobile apps development
   2. Website design and deployment
   3. Software design and development
   4. Film and video editing
   5. Computer repairs and maintenance
   6. Outsourcing
   7. Content Development
   8. Games and animation
4. Job Placement Services (JOPLAS):
5. eMentoring

Operations

The aHub will be housed in CITAD and provide the followings:

1. Working space for the participants
2. Internet connectivity
3. Power supply
4. Training opportunities for registered participants
5. Pool of mentors
6. Administrative support
7. A limited a number of use and leave computers
8. Trainers

Benefits to the Wider Society

1. A place that constantly thinks of solution to societal problems
2. Reduction in unemployment
3. availability of need goods and services as well as skills that the society needs
4. Prospects for technological breakthrough

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Prof. Amina Bashir of Department of English, Federal University Dutse (FUD), Jigawa, on Thursday in Dutse advised students in the tertiary institutions to engage in entrepreneurship activities. Prof. Amina Who is the Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, gave the advice while speaking at an Inspiring Leadership Reflection Interactive Series (ILERIS) organized for youth in Jigawa state by Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD). The Dean explained that the gesture was to avoid being unemployed even after graduation.

According to her, acquiring entrepreneurship skills would equip the students to be self-employed by starting and managing their own businesses, as well as eventually become employers of labour. While point out the importance of small scale businesses and medium enterprises, she noted that they were the bedrock of any economy and acquiring entrepreneurship literacy will assist in tackling unemployment and reduce restiveness among youths through the provision of functional skills.

She also advised the students to engage in various skill acquisition programmes being carried out by various governments and non-governmental organisations in order to be self-reliant, noting that all it takes is determination and perseverance and never to give up; this is because sometimes with small problems you think the world is coming to end. And remember that one important thing about life is that you have to do things for yourself; nobody will do it for you.

While advising the participants about the reality of life, she drew the attention of the participants that white-collar jobs were no longer available, hence the urgent need for them to embrace skills acquisition programs for self-reliance. So the only way out is to equip yourselves with education and training that promotes employment generation and wealth creation.

Taking the participants through her background at the event Malama Amina said she was born in June 1960 to the family of 5 in Fika Local Government present Yobe state and she was the youngest in the family. Professor Amina at her early age attended Central Primary School Guru then proceeded to Saint Patrick Secondary School in Maiduguri and then to Government Girls College Maiduguri where she finished her secondary School education and obtained her first degree at the age of 19.

In his remarks, the CITAD programme coordinator in the state, Mr. Ali Sabo said that the exercise was aimed at enriching the lives of the students through mentorship and inspiration; it’s our belief that through this programme, students will be empowered. CITAD believes that bringing accomplished personalities to interface with young people will surely help in inspiring them to be successful people that society will be proud of.

At the end of the program questions and comments were entertained from the participants.

By
Ali Sabo

The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has on Tuesday 10^th September, 2019 donated school uniforms, books and other learning materials to the pupils of Shara Community School. The donation came barely a week to the start of 2019/2020 educational year and served as part of the sustainability move of the community school that was set up by the community members as a result of a project ‘Improving Access to Education through Community Mobilization’ that CITAD implemented in 2016/2017. During the project, CITAD found that Shara community with a population of over 3000 people including about 600 school age children had no school and their children were not attending school because the only school near them (at Matigwai) has to be reached by crossing a river which is not possible during the rainy season. Following a series of community consultations, the community with help from CITAD, set up a community school under a tree in 2017. The event took place at the school premises with key stakeholders in education sector from within and outside Sumaila local government.

Sagiru Ado Abubakar of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) opened the event with a brief history about the existence of the school and the effort made by CITAD to reach out to the critical education stakeholders in the state to provide the needed facilities since the public unveiling of the community school. He explained how their advocacy visit requests were ignored by Honorable Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila, former Special Adviser to president Muhammad Buhari on Assembly Matters, and how discussion between community members under the lead of CITAD with Honorable Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, Senator Kano South Senatorial District and Honorable Zubairu Hamza, Member State House of Assembly Sumaila/Takai Constituency did not yield any fruitful result.

Alh. Dayyabu Musa, spokesperson of the community appreciated the effort of CITAD for their commitment since the establishment of the school. He then expressed his worry about the situation of the school. In his words, “We recently heard over the radio the declaration of the Executive Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje on education, saying that education is now free and must in Kano State”. We questioned that how this declaration could be possible in Shara community without necessary tools”?  Alh. Sabo Aliyu, Education Secretary, Sumaila Local Education Authority was represented at the event by Malam Muhktar Uba Sumaila. Mukhtar said that the setback recorded recently in the school was due to two important reasons. One, the teacher sent to Shara requested the Education Authority to release him to go back to school and we did that. With inadequate number of the teaching staff in the local government we are still battling to have his replacement. Secondly, since the establishment of the school, the community failed to establish School Community-Based Management Committee (SBMC) that will pursue the demands of the community school. To address the problems, he suggested the setting of a committee of 15 members as SBMC. This was accepted the committee was constituted on the spot. He asked the committee to visit him on Thursday 13^th September, 2019 to register the school with local education authority. He then promised to include the school to be part of the UNICEF intervention program and school feeding program. He also promised after establishment of the SBMC to lead them to pay advocacy visit to the newly elected chairman of the local government.

At the end of the event, Alh Nura Mato thanked CITAD for their concern on the school. He said that Shara did not know any organization besides CITAD that has been committed toward helping them as far as education was concern.

 

Centre for information Technology and Development (CITAD) is a capacity building civil society organization whose activities covers research, advocacy, training and publicity in all areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs). It is geared towards promoting digital inclusion and positioning young people and women to leverage on information technology for a just society in Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Empowerment of women through capacity building is a way of enhancing women’s participation in Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). Capacity building among communities and empowerment of local women should be aimed at giving voice to their concerns.

It is also necessary that women participate in CBOs’ development activities so that they can develop their voices and develop the human, organisational and management capacity to solve problems as they arise in order to sustain the improvement.

 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

• To strengthen existing women community based organisations
• To attain sustainable development in the community
• To empower women for leadership role in the community

 

METHODOLOGY

Participatory approach and Capacity Building.

Fifteen communities were engaged across four Area Councils (AMAC, BWARI, KUJE and KWALI). The fifteen communities are those Action Aid have been working with.

It was a participatory approach as women in these communities highlighted the challenges they were facing and we discussed the way forward. The following are the discussions raised according to each community.

Guto Community (Bwari Area Council): This community has women CBO with the name Akwajamua, meaning Togetherness. They have 173 women registered. They meet every end of the month. In the meeting they do monthly contribution and give out loan for those in need with 10% interest. Minutes and attendance are taken during the meeting.

Their CBO have been in existence for more than 30 years, but never had a saving scheme but now they do. They also give advice to one another.

Request made: They need loan for empowerment, skills acquisition centre; and they have people who can’t afford to pay their tution fee in school, they need sponsors.

Kuchibuyi Community (Bwari Area Council): In this community, they have women CBOs for young and married women. The married women CBO is named Agbajeshi (Togetherness) with 150 women registered. They meet monthly and advice each other, give out loan from the contribution they do.

For the young women association, its named Achajawa. In the meeting, they contribute to assist each other, and they also discuss on how to assist their parents also. They were advised to contribute funds for those who are unable to pay for their tuition fee in schools.

Request made:  They need loan for empowerment, good road network and the young girls want sponsors for their education

Pasepa Community (Bwari Area Council): In Pasepa, they have two CBOs namely Ayelaja with 30 women and Agbajeshi with 35 women registered. They contribute and give loan with interest and they also advise one another during their meetings.

Request made: They need loan and a secondary school as the children in this community trek about 10km to school and when it rains, they can’t go to school because of the state of the road. They are also requesting for good road network.

Kilankwa Community (Kwali Area Council); The name of the women CBO is Ayedo (love one another) with 200 women registered as members. The women contribute money to pay for shop rental where they sell their farm produce; they also assist each other with loan to grow their businesses.

Request made: The women need soft loan and grinding machine for flour.

Pai Community (Kwali Area Council): they once had a CBO but mixed (men and women) unfortunately there was no accountability from the men’s side  which led to collapse of the CBO. The women were advised to establish a CBO specifically for women.

Request made: They demanded for good road network and soft loan.

Leleyi Gwari Community (Kwali Area Council) : They have a CBO with the name Ayedo and 30 women registered as members. They meet every week to discuss  the way forward. They take attendance, minutes and also contribute some money for the sustainability of the group. They give soft loan to each other.

Request made: Soft loan and good road network.

Gaube Community (Kuje Area Council): In Gaube, they have two women groups, for the indigenes and non-indigenes of the community. In these groups, they contribute monthly and they use the money for business by giving out loan with interest.

Challenges: They community women are not united

Request made: They need soft loan, fertilizer for farming and they want Action Aid to intervene on the issue of teachers, the teachers don’t teach well and as a result of that, 90% of the students failed their WAEC examination.

Kayache Community (Kuje Area Council): They don’t have women association, they were advised to establish one and register it with the appropriate agencies.

Tukphechi community (Kuje Area Council): The women have an association but recently they don’t meet frequently as in the past and they are planning to part ways.

We intervened to find out what were the problems, as they stated that there were issues based on trust. We advised them to resolve it and we highlighted the benefits of having an association which is important for the development of a community.They also talked about the equipment Action Aid donated to them but later took them back.

Gofidna Community (AMAC): in Gofidna, the name of their CBO is Zagbanagaza. The association is registered with only indigenes as members. They do weekly contribution and assist each other with soft loans. They also have a farm land bought in the name of the association where they farm only for women.

Request made: They are requesting for tractors for their farmland and soft loan.

Dakwa Community (AMAC):  The name of their association is Ayelaji (Helping and loving one another). 40 women are registered as members. They contribute and give out loan to those who need it with interests.

Request made: They need secondary school, loan and water. The borehole they have, the solar was stolen which has led to shortage of water in the community.

Gwalada Community (AMAC): The name of their association is Ayelaja (love each other). They have their meeting monthly and contribute to assist those in need. They have a register and take minutes and attendance.

Challenges: Their men gave them the permission to farm only water leaf.  Other farm produce is not permitted for a woman to farm.Some of the women said that their husband don’t allow them to sell outside the community.

Request made: They need water, school and health clinic.

Jiwa Community (AMAC): The name of their association is Kugiyar Matan Jiwa ( Jiwa women association). They have over 200 women registered. They meet every Friday to discuss and advise one another.

They also do weekly contribution to sustain themselves and the association.

For the young girls, the name of their association is Alafuwa Girls Youth Foundation with 45 young women; they meet to discuss how their dream can be achieved and contribute stipends to assist one another.

Request made: The young women want to be sponsored to further their education.

The women are demanding for bus to be use for commercial to sustain the association and soft loan.

Tungan Ashere (AMAC?): The name of the women association is Shekwodiza (God is greater than everyone). They contribute money and give those in need of loan. They are 65 women in the association as members.

Request made: skills acquisition centre, health clinic and secondary school.

Tungan Nasara (AMAC?): The name of their association is Ayelaji (love each other). They come together contribute and assist each other. The association is mainly for indigenes. So, we advised the non-indigenes to also establish theirs.

Request made: they need loan and drugs in their health clinic

CITAD TEAM ADVISED TO WOMEN IN ALL THE COMMUNITIES.

They were advised to take up leadership roles in the communities as it is important for the voices of women to be heard in our society as they are left behind.

For those who are not into business, they were told the importance of a woman having something doing to be able to take care of herself and children.

The importance of girl child education was also discussed.

The women leaders were tasked to ensure transparency in all the activities in the meeting.

The members were also advised to respect each other’s decision and avoid anything that will disrupt the activities of the CBOs

Holding leaders accountable for provision of social amenities was also discussed.

 

OUTCOME

The women pledged to contribute to the development of their communities.

The women pledged to start taking  up leadership roles in the community.

The women pledged to have strong relationship among them.

Those that don’t have an association, they pledged to establish one.

 

RECOMMENDATION

We recommend they should be given soft loans with interests as majority of the groups requested. Angwan gwalada should be provided with blocks of classrooms as there is no school in that community.

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Community women in FCT were advised to break the glass ceiling as far as leadership is concerned, as this will pave way for development in rural communities in FCT. Over the week, Centre for Information Technology and Development with support from Actionaid Nigeria built the capacity of women to actively seek for  leadership positions. It is indeed a blessing that women are the pioneers of  change but it also comes with great responsibility.

How women will be judged with regards to leadership potential will be based on the grassroots women performance.   The main objective of the programme is to strengthen community based organization for sustainable development in the community. 15 communities from 4 Area Councils in FCT benefitted from the programme. In AMAC: Tungan Ashere, Tungan Nasara, Angwa Gwalada, Dakwa, Gofidna and Jiwa. In Bwari: Guto, Kuchibuyi and Pasepa. In Kwali: Pai, Leleyi Gwari, Kilankwa. In Kuje: Gaube, Tukpheci and Kayache were all beneficiaries.

Almost all the communities have women community based organizations. Some of CBOs meets once every week, while some monthly. Interestingly, they support each other with small business loan through the monthly contribution they do. Their major source of livelihood is farming, as majority of the women are into selling farm produce.

The women were trained on how sustain their CBOs. The women highlighted the problems each CBOs was facing. Among all is financial sustainability, they were advised on how to ensure steady flow of funds for maintaining and continuing the organizations work by giving out loan with interest and the importance of women engaging in businesses.

They were advised to take up leadership role in the community; it is paramount for their voices to be heard, engaging in politics and ensuring transparency and accountability. The importance of girl child education was also discussed. Most of these communities lack basic amenities, the women were advised to seek for accountability from their representatives in governance.