Female child labour in Nigeria

Female child labour in Nigeria refers to the high incidence in Nigeria of girls aged 5–14 who are involved in economic activities outside education and leisure.^[1] The prevalence of female child labour in Nigeria is largely due to household economic status,^[2] but other factors include: the educational status of parents, the presence of peer pressure, and high societal demand for domestic help and sex workers.^[3] Additionally, in many rural and Muslim communities in Northern Nigeria, children are sometimes asked to aid religiously secluded women or mothers in running errands.^[4]

Many girls in the nation work as shop helpers and street hawkers. The use of young girls in economic activities exposes them to dangers that sometimes result in sexual assault, loneliness, anger, and exploitation.^[5] In addition, the workforce of young girls is not recognized by law and any form of employee benefit is negligible.^[6][7]

In Nigeria, child labour is driven by social, demographic, and economic factors such as poverty, loss of parental employment, loss of a parent or family guardian, rural-urban migration, large family size, and cultural norms such as polygamy.^[8] Other drivers include the mal-distribution of schools, poor accessibility, and the high cost of tuition.^[8]Recently, conflicts and terrorism have caused internal displacements of people and damage to school facilities, pushing more children into child labour. Moreover, the mass killings of communities by bandits in northern Nigeria have created more orphans and potential victims of child labour.^[9][10]