The federal government of Nigeria has claimed that it has invested several billions of Naira in social protection to fight poverty in Nigeria stressing that it is doing its best to pull Nigerians out of poverty.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige described the money spent as ‘triple vaccination’ against poverty.
Ngige made this claim in Abuja Thursday while briefing the media on the occasion of the 2022 World Day Against Child Labour, with the theme, ‘Universal Social Protection to end Child Labour.’
The Minister who linked the menance of child labour to poverty, assured that the Federal Government was vigorously implementing its numerous social protection programmes to better the lives of parents and the children.
According to him, ‘everything possible is being done to sustain the social protection programmes in spite of the dwindling revenue of the Federal Government.
Noting that poverty was fuelling child labour, especially in the developing countries, he expressed optimism that the scourge could be eliminated through establishment of social protection floors and programmes.
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He said the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and other members of the National Steering Committee on the Elimination of Child Labour were using this year’s event to call for increased investment in social protection programmes and schemes to establish solid social protection floors and protect children from child labour.
He explained that social protection programmes are essential to fight poverty and vulnerability identified as the causes of child labour.
He said, ‘Children engaged in this are badly endangered. The Government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, in collaboration with the ILO and other stakeholders have been working assiduously and collaboratively to ensure the elimination of Child Labour in line with SDG 8.7 and that young workers of legal working age are protected and work in safe conditions.
‘Government is implementing vigorously the National Children School Feeding Programme (NCSFP) which is the major plank of the battle by the Federal Government to fight child labour, increasing children school enrollment and preventing them from dropping out of schools.’
He said the children were being fed with proteinous and nutritious food to make for good health and also keep them in school, while providing jobs for their parents as farmers, traders and cooks.
Ngige said the government was also investing billions of Naira on the Universal Basic Education (UBE), which makes children to attend primary and junior secondary school free, in a bid to prevent them from engaging in child labour.
He said poverty was also being addressed through the conditional cash transfer programme, Trader moni and N-power programme, the diversification of the economy into agriculture through Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) and the Technical Education Vocational Training (TVET) scheme.
He said the government has been trying to sustain all these programmes in spite of declining revenue.