NESG’s Chief Executive Officer designate, Dr. Tayo Aduloju, made this revelation on the sideline of the just concluded 29th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit, NES#29, in Abuja.
He stated, “Some children are left in multidimensional poverty, and over 20 million are out of school. If we continue to leave that population in that situation, it means we are leaving children's well-being unaddressed and have left them unprepared for the future.
He continued, “We need to see the Federal Government take ownership of this by coordinating the sub-national governments, so as to be on the same page in tackling the problem nationwide.”
The Founder of Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, emphasized that what we need to address the high rate of poverty and the menace of out-of-school children is to escalate awareness at the grassroots level.
“Many of them do not understand why people live in poverty. We need to give incentives to attract children to school and make them change their mindsets.
“Lots of work needs to be done in terms of advocacy. Also, the policy makers need to come up with policies that would address these menace.”
Speaking on the issue of poverty in Nigeria Senior Program Officer at Bill Gate & Melinda Foundation, Dr. Shima Aladeshawe, pointed out that Nigeria is abysmally behind the 2030 target.
“We need to get our target right. Government must rethink incentivising the sub-nationals to key into the agenda.
“Government of the day must galvanise every one and come up with strategies to solve the problem now.”
Meanwhile, the federal government has announced plans to review and enhance the curriculum for basic schools in the country to develop the creative skills of children and prepare them for future innovation.
