The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has stated that 47.4 percent of children in Nigeria live in households that spend less than N400 per day.
In a statement on Friday, 27th May 2022, in respect of the International Children’s Day, the UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins observed that 54 per cent of children in Nigeria were ‘multi-dimensionally poor’.
Child poverty refers to the state of children living in poverty including children from poor families and orphans being raised with insufficient or no state resources.
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Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday, launched three reports on how poverty affects children in Nigeria, ‘The Situation Analysis of Children, Multidimensional Child Poverty Analysis and the Monetary Child Poverty in Nigeria’.
Speaking on the report, Hawkins said the multi-dimensional child poverty report showed that more children were living in poverty in rural than urban areas.
He disclosed that children in Nigeria had been denied at least three out of seven child rights benefits, adding the country would need about ‘one trillion’ to tackle child poverty.
“The multidimensional child poverty analysis using multidimensional overlapping deprivation analysis approach reveals that approximately 54% of children in Nigeria are multi-dimensionally poor by facing at least three deprivations across seven dimensions of child rights including nutrition, healthcare, education, water, sanitation, adequate housing, and information.” the statement reads.
“Multidimensional poverty in children is more prevalent in the rural (65.7 %) than urban (28.4 %) areas. There are also high state disparities ranging from 14.5 % in Lagos to 81.5% as it’s the case in Sokoto.
“The monetary child poverty report shows that 47.4% of children face monetary poverty by living in households with expenditure less than N376.5 per day – national poverty line. Slight differences are observed between boys (47.98 %) and girls (46.8 %) while there are high geographical and state disparities (from 6.5% in Lagos to 91.4% in Sokoto.
“In Nigeria, according to the report, 24.56% of children face extreme poverty by living in households that spend less than $1.90 per day.
“The analysis indicates that the country would need as roughly as 1 trillion naira to lift children out of poverty.
“The situation analysis indicates that child poverty rate is highest among children aged 16– 17 years and least among children aged 0–5 years.
“It notes that children are most affected by poverty because they are vulnerable and that poverty has long-term impacts on the well-being of children, even into adulthood.”
Hawkins therefore called for more efforts by the government and concerned stakeholders on addressing the situation, adding, “we still have a long way to go towards ensuring the well-being of children and families in Nigeria, with persistent multi-dimensional poverty being a crucial obstacle”.
It wasn’t news to hear that Nigeria as a country is being ravaged by abject poverty. The situation has thus far lingered that it requires a drastic and severe measure towards alleviating it.
The societal menace signifies that, on the average, a Nigerian child is prone to all kinds of vulnerability. This is the reason, on a daily basis, we would be greeted with ugly news of various forms of child abuse such as trafficking, prostitution, molestation, and rape, especially among the female folk.
The governments at all levels across the Nigerian State are therefore enjoined to expedite actions in a bid to ending the ongoing high poverty rate among the children in their respective jurisdictions.