Violence against children impacts Nigeria’s economy —FG

The Federal Government on Thursday said the economic impact of violence against children in Nigeria was estimated at 6.1 billion dollars (N967 billion) annually.

This amount is equivalent to about 1.07 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Mr Olajide Odewale disclosed this at the inauguration of two reports on child protection in Abuja.

The reports are Financial Benchmark on Child Protection Services and the Economic Burden of Violence Against Children.

Odewale said the estimated economic value that Nigeria loses to some selected health consequence of violence against children in 2014 amounted to N849 billion for females and N570 billion for males.

In spite of this huge loss, he said the financial investment on child protection was a paltry N27.89 kobo spent per child on child protection per day.

“Child protection expenditure is 0.08 per cent of total Federal Government expenditure on public goods and services as of 2014/2015.

“The 67 per cent of the percentage (0.08 per cent) spent on Child Protection service is spent on public order and safety sectors.

“Out of that percentage, 76. 8 per cent is for response services and 21.8 per cent on prevention services,’’ he said.

Odewale, however, called on all stakeholders to consider and ensure that Child Protection was included in National Chart of Accounts.

“An increase at the Federal Government level of 0.1 per cent in the expenditure on Child Protection will translate to N146 for every child per day.

“This has the capacity to reverse the negative outcome on Violence Against Women and other child protection issues,’’ he said.

Credit: NAN