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Federal Government on Tuesday renewed commitment towards fight against child labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and forced labour in line with emerging global trends in labour administration.
Bolaji Adebiyi, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, gave the assurance in Abuja while addressing the strategy meeting of the National Steering Committee on Child Labour.
In the bid to achieve the feat, Adebiyi emphasized the need for collaboration between Federal Government and relevant stakeholders in the bid to reduce the scourge of Child Labour through innovation and collaboration.
“One of the emerging global trends in labour administration is the renewed fight against child labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and forced labour as encapsulated in the Alliance 8.7.
“Nigeria as a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations should not be found behind but rather, be at the forefront of the pursuit of these objectives.
“Eradication of child labour can only be accelerated through leveraging expertise across diverse fields. Hence, Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals and Alliance 8.7 emphatically requests stakeholders in the fight against the scourge of child labour to work together in new innovative and collaborative ways,” he stressed.
While setting agenda for the meeting, the Permanent Secretary said that the meeting should among others, ensure awareness creation and sensitization on the reporting template for the elimination of child labour in Nigeria, consequently, a national registry of high-level Desk Officers on Child Labour in all MDAs will be established and there will be immediate commencement of the usage of the validated reporting template on the elimination of child labour in Nigeria.
Speaking earlier, Solomon Ajibola, Director Inspectorate in the Ministry, applauded Federal Government’s resolve to support efforts geared towards eradicating child labour in Nigeria.
He advocated the need to engage preventive measures toward eradicating the scourge of child labour in the country.
“We just have to look inwards, our primary focus is the reporting aspect of the programme and we want to come up with a National all-embracing Child Labour Report during the first quarter of the year,” Ajibola said.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
