Kaduna: A Kaduna-based NGO, Beacon of Transformative and Inclusive Development Centre (BEACON), has called for institutional reforms to end child labour in Africa, with a particular focus on Nigeria. The Executive Director, Mrs. Abigail Olatunde, made this call in a statement in Kaduna on Thursday, as part of the 2025 World Day Against Child Labour commemoration.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Olatunde emphasized that addressing child labour necessitates providing free and quality education for all children, implementing social protection measures to alleviate family poverty, and enacting labour reforms to eliminate legal loopholes and extend protections to informal work settings. She underscored the importance of community engagement in challenging harmful norms and advocating for children’s rights.
Olatunde highlighted the reality faced by millions of children in Nigeria and across Africa, who wake up each day to the demands of labour rather than the promise of education. She noted that these children, whether on farms, in households, at markets, or in mines, bear the weight of a broken promise that every child deserves a safe, protected, and quality education.
As the world observes the World Day Against Child Labour, Olatunde urged a shift from symbolic recognition to confronting the crisis’s scale and committing to structural changes necessary to eradicate it. In Nigeria, 15% of children aged five to 14, equating to 6.8 million children, are involved in child labour, while another 35.3% balance school and work. Among adolescents aged 15 to 17, 21.9% work full-time, and 45.3% juggle school and labour. A 2021 study in Enugu revealed that 71.7% of junior secondary school students engaged in child labour, with over a third facing hazardous conditions.
This issue extends beyond mere work; it is a matter of survival in an unequal system. Olatunde noted that 35.2% of working Nigerian children are exposed to hazardous environments, such as quarrying, mining, and sexual exploitation. In domestic settings, one in five children works over 42 hours a week, with many experiencing trauma, and 15.6% showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Furthermore, one in three Nigerian children is out of school, with girls’ school attendance in Northern Nigeria falling below 48%. Among child domestic workers, 19% lack access to education entirely. Olatunde pointed out that Africa currently holds the highest global rate of child labour at 20%, representing 72.1 million children, with 31.5 million engaged in hazardous work. The youngest children, aged five to 11, are most affected.
She identified poverty, exclusion, rural marginalisation, legal contradictions, and cultural systems, such as the Almajiri system in Northern Nigeria, as hidden drivers of child labour. These systems force children into the streets to beg and find menial jobs.
BEACON advocates for inclusive development as the only sustainable path forward. Olatunde emphasized the organization’s commitment to speaking for the 15 million children working in Nigeria and every child denied the right to learn, play, and dream. She urged society to build a future where no child’s potential is curtailed by hardship, as a just society protects childhood rather than stealing it.