The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in their reports on Thursday, said over 24 million Nigerian children between the age of 5 to 17 are embroiled in child labour.
The revelation is coming after twenty-two years the last survey on child labour in Nigeria.
The figure, açcording to the Nigeria Child and Forced Labour survey in 2022 shows that the 24,673,485, (39.2%) of the child population is caught in web of child labour with a nearly equal distribution among boys, 39.6% and girls 38.8% of this figures, 30.0% of the child workers are found in urban setting while 44.8% are in rural areas.
Further breakdown of the data revealed that 31,756,302 of Nigeria’s child population, representing 50.5% are in economic activity while 14,390,353 (22.9%) are in hazardous work.
Regionally, the North-West geographical zone been the highest brunt in child labour with 6,407,102 and 3,266,728 in hazardous work.
In constract, the South-East stands out with the highest role of hazardous work and child labour, affecting 49.9% of its population.
The report also indicates 5.2% individuals per thousand are subjected to forced labour in their current employment, drawn from a total of 617,503 individuals identified in 2022.
The most affected sectors include services, excluding domestic work 36.9% and agriculture 36.2%.
The Statistician-General of the Federal and CEO of NBS, Samiu Adeyemi Adeniran, affirmed the reliability of the data, which was gathered from sample of 16,000 households across all the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Adeniran emphasised that the findings provide stakeholders with a solid foundation for making informed decisions.
-9News Nigeria.
