As Nigeria joins the rest of Africa to mark the Day of the African Child under the theme “Planning and Budgeting for Children’s Rights: Progress Since 2010,” SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria is calling for urgent and sustained action to move beyond rhetorical commitments to real, measurable investments in child welfare. With nearly half of Nigeria’s 200 million population being children, the organisation says planning and budgeting for their rights is “not optional but imperative.”
According to a press statement signed by Rhoda Daniel-Ocheche, Advocacy and Communication Manager, Eghosa Erhumwunse, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria, was quoted as saying “The Nigerian child deserves more than promises on paper. Budgeting for children must go beyond allocation—it must deliver real impact.”
The statement continued saying “Every naira spent on child survival, education, nutrition, and protection strengthens the foundation of our national prosperity.”
Between 2021 and 2025, Nigeria’s national nutrition budget reportedly increased by over 700 percent, reflecting an increasing recognition of child health needs. Education and health have also seen periodic increments. However, SOS Children’s Villages highlighted troubling inconsistencies in execution. In 2021, although ₦742 billion was budgeted for education, only ₦127 billion was released for capital projects. The education sector’s share of the national budget also fluctuated widely—from 6.5 percent in 2020 to just 5.98 percent in 2024.
“The challenge is not just how much is budgeted, but how much is actually released and used effectively,” Erhumwunse said. The health and social protection sectors have faced similar problems, with poor disbursement rates undermining service delivery at the community level.
Despite the gaps, SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria commended the Federal Government for several positive developments. These include efforts to improve budget transparency, introduce child-focused budget tracking mechanisms, and most notably, the decision to inaugurate a National Child Rights and Welfare Commission. “This long-overdue Commission will be a cornerstone for inter-sectoral coordination, stronger oversight, and institutional accountability for the rights of children,” the organisation said in a statement.
To translate policy into real impact, SOS Children’s Villages is urging the government to scale up budget allocations for child education, health, nutrition, and protection, create dedicated budget lines for children’s services, ensure full disbursement and transparency in public spending, and prioritize the operationalization of the Child Rights and Welfare Commission by Q3 2025.
“This year’s Day of the African Child must be more than a commemoration,” Erhumwunse said. “It is a reminder that the future of our country hinges on how well we care for our children today. The Nigerian child is full of resilience and potential—we owe them more than words, we owe them results.”
