Girl child labour in Nigeria

In many rural communities, girl child labour has been part of the process and is believed to aid girls in developing home skills, helping others and family solidarity.[11] Activities include gathering fire wood.[12] As such socialization is a major reason girls are preferred to boys in the recruitment of maids. However, those types of work do sometimes impede the educational prospect of the girls. In some Northern Nigerian Fulani communities, the girl-child helps her mother by hawking milk or other produce from their family farm or made by the mother.

Due to division of labor according to gender in households and also because of socialization, many Nigerian households prefer to use girls as maids.[10] The girl child domestic help in Nigeria are girls aged under 15 who work as maids in the households of families who are in a higher income bracket that those of their parents. In return, the wealthier family pays her or her parents or provide her training in some skill.[10] However, the domestic maid face different challenges in this new environment including child abuse and sexual assault.[13] In some instances, some of the girls are under the age of 8,[13] In Nigeria, most of the girls are from the Southern and Middle Belt regions. The demand for domestic helps in Nigeria and nearby African countries has increased the incidence of child trafficking.[14] This process is enhanced by the invisibility of girls in domestic work because it is considered normal in many urban households.

To source for domestic helps organized networks go to towns and villages in Southern states like Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Cross River, Ekiti and Oyo to procure the services of children who are then transported to other states for domestic work. In 1999, a boat carrying children from Akwa Ibom to Gabon was intercepted by the police.

Many girls below the age of 15 engage in the vending of goods on roads, carriage of goods to customers and begging of alms. On average, more primary and secondary school age girls engage in street trading than boys. The young girls choose specific routes and road junction to vend goods before returning home in the evening. Apart from hawking, some girls also engage in street begging sometimes known as al majeri in the North.[15]