Like the effect of the Ebola pandemic, COVID-19 will disproportionately affect adolescent girls in Africa bearing ripple effects of violence, trafficking, child marriage and teenage pregnancies hence downplaying the achievements made towards the education of the girl child over the years, thereby increasing the gender gaps in education. In West Africa, women and girls accounted for 60% of the population of those who were infected with Ebola, leaving thousands of children without parents and teenage girls dropping out of school to take up parental roles.1 In Nigeria, vulnerable adolescent girls would be faced with the risk of dropping out of school, getting married before the age of 18 every day post COVID-19 and being sexually exploited through transactional sex to support family needs.
