Abstract:

Child labor is considered harmful to the general development of the child but is still common in the developing countries of the world. The study aimed at determining the demographic and socio-economic factors contributing to child labor in Nigeria. Secondary data extracted from the 2016 MICS were used. The sample was two stages sampling frame, with a nationally representative sample of 33,901 households from 2,239 enumeration areas. 61,109 questionnaires were administered to children age 5–17 years using three age-specific thresholds. Tabulations, involving frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the data at univariate level, while logistic regression analysis was employed to determine the contributing factors of child labor. The results showed that child labor was still high in the country and the poorest households had more children involved in child labor. The emerging factors of child labor were child’s age, sex, place of residence, school attendance, mother’s education, wealth index quintile and geo-political zone. To achieve SDG8, it was recommended that enforcement of compulsory school attendance and completion, skill acquisition, empowering parents and education of parents against child labor should be vigorously pursued by the government at all levels in the country.