The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr William Nwankwo has called on all stakeholders to explore more innovative ways to addressing child labour in the global supply chains, stressing that combating evidence based action will strengthen public policies.
Nwankwo made the call at the validation meeting for the National Plan of Action for the project Accelarating Actions for the Elimination of child labour in the supply chain (ACCEL Africa) organised by ILO.
Represented by the Deputy Director, Inspectorates department of the ministry Mr. Dauda Ajuwon, Nwankwo said there was need for community’s empowerment as well as strengthen partnership with private sector in the country.
” I want to assure you of Nigeria’s commitment to the elimination of child labour in the country. While we are not yet there, Nigeria has made a significant progress in this direction in recent times.
“Only last week, we had a symposium as part of activities in commemoration of the World Day against child labour.
”Earlier, there was street and market to create awareness and sensitise the public on the evil of child labour in the society,” he said.
Nwankwo recalled that the strategic meeting held three months ago, participants indentified various outcomes, outputs and activities as work plan for the implementation of the ACCEL Africa Project in Nigeria.
He however said the task at the meeting was to fine-tune review and finalises the work plan to become instruments for collective actions and basis for a more coordinated and pragmatic approach in harmonising roles and scaling up interventions.
The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Mua’azu Abdulkadir who was represented by Director from the Ministry, Mr Patrick Ojeka said child labour cut across every sector with mining and agriculture being part of worse form of child labour.
He said it was no longer acceptable for children to work in hazardous conditions such as in mining, agriculture and construction for the future of a country lies in the developmental and capacity building of its children.
“Consequently ,the insurgents has been ravaging some parts of the country and the continent at large, a lot of children who are now misplaced had found themselves in mining and agriculture.
” While majority of them are from within the country, some migrated across countries seeking for survival and ended up in hazardous jobs especially mining,” Abdulkadir said.
He said the ACCEL Africa project in Nigeria had its focus on eliminating child labour in supply chains in Artisanal Gold Mining and Cocoa, saying the ministry had just started its campaign project tagged ‘Eliminating Child Labour through Women Empowerment’.
Abdulkadir said the campaign was focused on returning children in mine host communities to schools by providing mine host community schools with conducive environment for learning.
He however urged ILO to extend the project to other minerals and other states of the federation, saying that child labour menace cut across and can be found in the 36 states including FCT.
The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Mohammed Umar who was represented by Deputy Director of Human Resources,Mrs Amina Kangiwa said the Ministry was ready to collaborate with ILO and other stakeholders to move for the implementation of ACCEL Africa.
The Director of ILO, Country Office, Mr Dennis Zulu who was represented by the National Project Coordinator, Mrs Agatha Kolawole said the meeting was a follow up and finalisation of the national and states consultations held in May in Abuja, June in Akure and Minna.
He said the outcomes, outputs and activities identified in May and June would be developed further into draft plan of action to be presented for
validation.
Zulu said the objective of the meeting was to review, finalise and validate draft work plan which identifies outputs and activities to be implemented by the ACCEL Africa project in Nigeria.
He said the UN General Assembly had urged international community to step up efforts to eradicate forced labour and child labour and declare 2021 as the year for the elimination of child labour.
” I hereby call for a renewed commitment and unity of all efforts from all actors in Nigeria, the government workers’ and employers’, organisations, donors, embassies, UN agencies and other international organisations for the elimination of child labour, protection of children in workplace and promoting decent work for all,” Zulu said.
The ACCEL Africa project is targeted at accelerating actions in the elimination of child labour in some supply chains in Africa and it is being piloted in 6 countries which includes Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Malawi, Mali and Nigeria
