Kazeem Biriowo – Abuja
The United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group(NESG) to fight child rights abuse and child poverty in Nigeria
The Chairman of the NESG, Niyi Yusuf, in his opening remarks in Abuja, explained that the goal of signing the MoU is to support the government’s initiatives to address issues affecting children and tackle poverty in the nation.
He further said that the MOU is intended to help Nigeria achieve Sustainable Development Goals in the areas of education, health, and other child rights concerns.
The partnership aims to interact with and promote a child-centered approach to development in Nigeria at the highest policy levels.
According to him: “From the Nigerian and NESG perspectives our view is that the Nigerian children actually represent the greatest assets to this country.
“We keep saying that our children are the leaders of tomorrow and so it’s important that we must invest and plant the seeds to ensure that these children truly become the leaders of tomorrow.”
He noted that in the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released in 2022, two-thirds of Nigerian children were multi-dimensionally poor which means they lacked access to health, education and income.
Also, more than 50 percent of the children of poor people have poor early childhood development.
“So, if a child suffers any negative growth in early childhood, you are laying a not-so-good foundation for tomorrow and for us at the NESG.
“Our focus is always to promote the modernisation of the Nigerian economy to one that is sustainable, globally competitive and has and promotes shared prosperity.
“We believe that urgent action is required to ensure that we do the right things to promote the development of our children and for those children to then become the leaders, consumers and workforce of tomorrow.”
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