"Malala Fund Advocates for Policies to Enable Married Girls Return to School"

By Abdullahi Alhassan

Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria

October 2, 2025

(Series News Online)

Malala Fund has called on the Kaduna State Government to strengthen policies that enable married girls and adolescent mothers to re-enter school, emphasizing that this would empower them to contribute positively to society. Ms. Nabila Aguele, Chief Executive of Malala Fund in Nigeria, made this call during a visit to the Centre for Girls’ Education (CGE) in Zaria, Kaduna State.

The visit, which followed the fund’s first-ever global board meeting held in Nigeria, aimed to engage directly with grassroots partners and assess the impact of their programs. Aguele noted that partnering with organizations and advocating for girls' education requires firsthand experience of the challenges faced by girls and the solutions being implemented. "When you are partnering with organisations and advocating girls’ education, you must be on the ground to see and experience the safe spaces, talk to the girls, their mentors and teachers," she said.

During the visit, Aguele met with adolescent mothers who had faced challenges such as child marriage and gender-based violence but remained hopeful about returning to school. She emphasized that policies must guarantee this hope, enabling girls to access education and fulfill their potential. "Policies must guarantee that hope," she stressed.

Aguele highlighted the alarming statistics of child marriage in Nigeria, where over 22 million girls are married under the age of 18, with many already becoming mothers. She warned that the education gap has long-term consequences for development, noting that children of unschooled mothers are less likely to attend school themselves. "Education delays early marriage, improves health outcomes, boosts GDP, and creates better choices for families," she said. "If we ignore these girls, we risk Nigeria’s development future."

The Chief Executive also emphasized the importance of promoting gender-responsive budgeting in the education sector, ensuring that policy-making reflects the voices and realities of girls in their communities.

Habiba Mohammed, Executive Director of CGE, said the organization had impacted over 200,000 girls in Kaduna through its safe space program since 2016. The program provides girls with life skills, vocational training, reproductive health education, and guidance on gender-based violence, among other benefits. "We want every girl, including married adolescents, to have lifelong learning so that even after 12 years of schooling, they continue to grow," she added.

Some beneficiaries of the safe space program commended CGE and Malala Fund for the support, saying they had become self-reliant and self-aware. Maimuna Muhammad, a married beneficiary, said joining the program had helped her identify gender-based violence and respond to it, adding that she now knows how to take care of herself and her baby.

The visit was led by Malala Fund co-founder, Mr. Ziauddin Yousafzai, alongside Aguele, with board members and international colleagues, who interacted with safe space mentors and girls at Bizara and Dambo communities in Zaria.