UN: Nigeria Loses N1.42tn Annually to Violence against Children
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has disclosed that Nigeria losses about N1.42 trillion in economic terms annually as consequences of violence against children (VAC).
The disclosure was made in Calabar, Cross River State capital, yesterday by the Public Finance for Child Protection, UNICEF Consultant, Rita Fele, at the launch of the Economic Burden of VAC in Nigeria and the Financial Benchmark for Child Protection Reports, organised in collaboration with the Cross River State Ministry of Women Affairs.
Fele said the figure represents 1.6 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which the country loses on the average from deaths and disability resulting from violence against children.
She said the N1.42 trillion was arrived at from statistics from a study conducted in 2017 based on data obtained in 2014.
Disclosing key points of the study, Fele said the Nigeria Consolidated National Benchmark estimate was put at 0.31 per cent, implying that “for every N100 spent per person in Nigeria, 31 Kobo, or N0.31, was spent per child on child protection services.”
“The total consolidated child protection expenditure was calculated as NGN 10.1 billion, which is 0.16 per cent of consolidated Federal and State expenditure minus debt service costs. NGN 109.26 per child was spent on child protection services on average in these years,” Fele explained.
Based on the current levels of consolidated child protection expenditure in Nigeria, Fele said the allocation of only 0.1 per cent of the country’s budget to children protection would increase total consolidated expenditure by 63 per cent.
She described VAC as a key social and economic concern for Nigeria’s future, saying priorities on prevention, and responsive child protection services in development plans must be put in place.
Fele advocated the inclusion of evidence-based study results towards advocating for more coordinated efforts on strengthening child protection systems across all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA).