Nigeria Child Labour Survey 2022

Using data collected by the National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the ILO and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment of Nigeria in the Nigeria Child Labour and Forced Labour Survey (NCFLS) 2022, this report also examines the patterns of child employment, the conditions of this employment and the key household characteristics that may contribute to child employment and child labour.

More than 62.9 million children 5 to 17 years old live in Nigeria, representing 30.3 per cent of the population. The NCFLS data was collected from a nationally representative sample of 16,418 households. The survey shows that more children live in rural areas than urban areas: 62.4 per cent (39,252,721) reside in rural areas compared to 37.6 per cent (23,647,758) in urban areas. The current survey allowed for the classification of children 5 to 17 years old into four mutually exclusive categories: children who are exclusively working, children who are exclusively in school, children who are working and in school, and children who neither work nor go to school. The survey indicates that among the 5–14 age group, 42.3 per cent are full time students who are not engaged in any form of economic activity, 35.3 per cent are in school and working simultaneously, and  11.2 per cent are working only. Among the 15–17 age group, a larger proportion of children are working only, at 21.9 per cent of the population of that age. Furthermore, only 24.7 per cent are exclusively in school and 45.3 per cent are working and in school.