A new report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed the state of child labour across Nigeria.
The report indicates that over 24 million Nigerian children are involved in child labour, with 14.3 millions of these children engaged in hazardous work as of 2022.
The northwest geopolitical zone bears the brunt of these figures, with the highest number of child labourers (6,407,102) and children in hazardous work (3,266,728). Yet, when it comes to the percentage prevalence of child labour, the southeast region emerges as the most affected, with nearly half of the children involved in child labour at 49.9%.
Nationally, 39.2% of children (24,673,485) are in child labour, and 22.9% (14,390,353) are involved in hazardous work, painting a grim picture of the conditions under which nearly two out of every five Nigerian children live.
The report also shows that children in the 5–17 age group in child labour commit an average of 14.6 hours of work per week.
A worrying trend emerges as the age increases, with older children in the labour force working longer hours. Specifically, children aged 15–17 work an average of 24.6 hours per week, compared to 19.4 hours for the 12–14 age group and 9.8 hours for the youngest group, aged 5–11.
The latest data further reveals the top 10 states grappling with high percentage of child labour in Nigeria. The findings indicate varying degrees of child labour intensity among different age groups, but our analysis focus on the aggregate numbers for children aged 5 to 17 years.