The Federal Government has raised concerns over the alarming impact of malnutrition on children under five, attributing 32% of deaths in this age group to inadequate nutrition.<\/p>\n
In addition to this, the government has decried the widespread use of children as cheap laborers in rural farms and urban marketplaces, a practice that exposes them to hazardous conditions and deprives them of a secure childhood.<\/p>\n
Speaking in the United Kingdom during the launch of the Community Children\u2019s Fund event, themed \u201cAdvancing Africa\u2019s Agenda for Children 2040: Protecting Street-Connected Children in West Africa,\u201d<\/em> the Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, highlighted the urgent need for intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cMalnutrition is a major concern, contributing to 32% of deaths among children under five,\u201d Sulaiman-Ibrahim said. \u201cThese children face hazardous living conditions and are often forced into labor in farms and marketplaces, bearing the brunt of societal inequities and losing the safety and joy of childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n The minister also revealed that child labor remains rampant in Nigeria, with millions of children engaged in hazardous work across various sectors. According to the Nigeria Child Labour Survey 2022 by the International Labour Organisation, 39% of children aged 5 to 17 are in child labor, with 61% of those between 5 and 11 years old.<\/p>\n Sulaiman-Ibrahim pointed to a range of factors exacerbating child neglect, including economic pressures, forced migration, cultural shifts, and the erosion of family cohesion. These issues have strained traditional safety nets, leaving children increasingly vulnerable.<\/p>\n The Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2018 places the under-five mortality rate at 132 per 1,000 live births. Meanwhile, the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF) reports that malnutrition is a direct or underlying cause of 45% of deaths in children under five. Furthermore, Nigeria has the second-highest burden of stunted children globally, with 32% of children under five affected.<\/p>\n UNICEF also estimates that two million Nigerian children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, yet only 20% of these children receive treatment.<\/p>\n During the event, the minister reaffirmed Africa\u2019s commitment to the Agenda for Children 2040,<\/em> a vision to create a future where every African child thrives.<\/p>\n \u201cBy 2040, we must collectively commit to building a society where neglect, abuse, and systemic failures have no place,\u201d Sulaiman-Ibrahim said. \u201cThe launch of this fund provides a critical platform to address vulnerabilities faced by children and unlock their immense potential.\u201d<\/p>\n The call to action underscores the importance of tackling malnutrition, child labor, and neglect to ensure a brighter future for all African children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Federal Government has raised concerns over the alarming impact of malnutrition on children under five, attributing 32% of deaths in this age group to inadequate nutrition. In addition to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Malnutrition-1536x864-1.jpg?fit=1536%2C864&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6006,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997\/revisions\/6006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Impact of Neglect and Systemic Failures<\/h3>\n
Africa\u2019s Agenda for Children 2040<\/h3>\n