Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige has linked the scourge of child labour to pervasive poverty in the African continent.
The minister, however, noted that the current administration in Nigeria has adopted a multi-pronged approach to fight child labour through a reduction in the poverty index, despite teething challenges.
He disclosed this recently while addressing the International Labour Organisation (ILO) 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, held in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.
The minister who co-chaired the day’s panel said Nigeria faced numerous challenges in the fight against Child Labour but was doing everything possible to stem the social malaise.
According to him, the challenges in the fight to eradicate Child Labour include low revenue earnings due to a fall in crude oil prices and production, over-dependence on imported goods/ items and low agricultural production and the consequential economic recession.
He attributed the worsening scenario in Nigeria to the COVID-19 pandemic which stagnated economic activities all over the world, pushing the country into a second economic recession in 2020.
Ngige said, “even before the present administration, poverty had crept into Nigeria’s socio-economic firmament and accentuated Child Labour with many non-working age persons, taking to farming and artisanal mining.
“Also, the educational curriculum not properly developed to give the right and proper skills in the secondary and tertiary institutions compounded matters.”
Other measures he said, “are the stoppage of unnecessary importation of commodities, such as rice, potato and beans and blockage of revenue leakages.”
