Several indicators have shown that Nigeria lags behind in guaranteeing children’s rights in the country despite its position as Africa’s leading economy. Experts, however, say the high level of child deprivation hinders the country’s potential to ensure sustainable development.According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, Nigeria has a high level of child mortality among the highest in ECOWAS.
Nigeria has the second highest child mortality rate after Niger.UNICEF also said despite a decrease in the incidence of multidimensional poverty in Nigeria, about 71 per cent of children still face multiple deprivations with almost half of the Nigerian children – 47.7 per cent – still experiencing monetary poverty. Figures from the UN agency also showed that three out of four children cannot understand what they read and cannot solve simple mathematics.
The Country Representative of UNICEF Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, said, “Child poverty is another huge problem in Nigeria; it has decreased but still in 2022, we have 64 million children with different types of deprivations.
“We cannot talk about digital development or digital economy if we don’t have in mind that 10 million children are out of primary school and eight million children are out of junior secondary school. We have eight million adolescents who are not in school and are not working”
“So the situation is critical if Nigeria wants to build a $1tn economy by 2026. The GDP investment spent on education is 1.2 per cent whereas in the rest of the world, it goes from four to six per cent. Our public investment in education has to improve.”
Speaking during a policy debate on National Child Wellbeing Dialogue at the 29th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, the Chairman of NESG, Niyi Yusuf, underscored the impact of child rights violations on the nation’s development and called for vigorous action to improve the life of children who are the future of the country.
“Furthermore, annual per capita growth faces a 0.55 per cent setback stemming from declining school enrolments, while the economic toll of violence against Nigerian children is estimated at approximately $6.1bn,” he added.
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