The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Aisha Garba, has declared the formal migration of the LUMINAH 2030 Initiative from the Federal Ministry of Education to UBEC.
Garba, at the LUMINAH 2030-UBEC Migration and Establishment Agenda in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the move was to educate and economically empower one million underserved Nigerian girls by 2030.
Represented by UBEC’s Deputy Executive Secretary, (Technical), Mr Razak Akinyemi, Garba said that the migration was a timely and necessary step to guarantee sustainability and long-term impact.
“LUMINAH 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 girls out of school,” she said.
The UBEC boss commended the contributions of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme that had nurtured LUMINAH since inception.
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 ensure that it will not fade away but endure.
“It is fully aligned with UBEC’s seven pillars in the 10-year roadmap (2021–2030) and the national education transformation agenda.
“Our expectations are clear: 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 mobilised is a victory for Nigeria,” she added.
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 that 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 at least one million underserved adolescent girls by 2030.
“With this migration to UBEC, we are embracing a more specialised and flexible system that will deepen stakeholder collaboration, enhance resource mobilisation and ultimately deliver measurable impact,” Buba noted.
The initiative, launched in March 2025, is assisted by the World Bank to provide vocational skills and financial support to female caregivers.
Other objectives are to establish flexible, safe learning centres for girls promote gender-equitable education policies and build a scalable, data-driven model for national adoption.
The initiative is currently implemented in the 12 states of the federation including Yobe, Taraba, Kano, Jigawa, Benue, FCT, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom.(NAN)
