First Lady Monica Chakwera says education is a key enabler in empowering the girl child to becoming a productive and reliable resource in driving Malawi’s development agenda.

Madame Chakwera who is also Plan Malawi’s ambassador on ending child marriages made the remarks on Thursday at the Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe when she represented the organisation in offering about K9 million worth of scholarships to 10 needy students from different tertiary institutions across the country.

Adding to that the First Lady said that investing in girls can help the country’s Gross Domestic Product to grow by one percent.

Madame Chakwera pointed out that time has come for Malawians to progressively partner efforts in empowering the girl child through education.

In her remarks, Country Director for Plan Malawi International Phoebe Katsoga said educating a girl child is key to efforts on terminating child marriages.