Mrs Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Population Commission (NPC), have called for urgent investment in Africa’s out-of-school teenage girls.

Buhari and the commission, made the call at a side event organised by the Federal Government in collaboration with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) at the UN headquarters on Wednesday in New York.

The event was part of the on-going 50th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development.

Buhari, whose speech was read by Rep. Asabe Bashir, Deputy Chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on Women in Parliament, said the population of Africa’s out-of-school teenage girls was alarming.

“Out-of-school teenage girls – ages 10 to 19 years – represent almost a quarter of the female population in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“These girls are without opportunities to attend schools or complete their education because of severe economic, social and cultural issues.

“These issues include poverty; early, forced or child marriage; childbearing and motherhood; and lack of access to quality and timely reproductive health care services among others.

“The conditions are particularly worse for those girls caught in the web of insurgency. Thus, they are on the verge of losing the opportunities of achieving their aspirations,’’ Buhari said.

According to her, the event was Nigeria’s means of calling global attention to the three enumerated areas of investment that are prerequisite to realising the girls’ full potential.

The areas of investment are sexual and reproductive health, re-enrolment into formal schools to at least secondary school completion level; and skills acquisition and entrepreneurship.