Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano.
The federal government has formally launched the National Strategy and Costed Action Plan on Ending Child Marriage in Nigeria (2025-2030) for the North-West and North-East zones, declaring that the fight against early marriage must move from declarations to measurable results.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Ibrahim, launched the strategy in Kano to commemorate the 2026 International Day of the Girl Child.
She said Kano was a fitting choice because of its strategic influence on social, cultural and educational life in Northern Nigeria through its traditional institutions, religious leaders and community structures.
According to her, the 2026 theme, “End Child Marriage and Invest in Girls’ Rights,” speaks directly to Nigeria’s responsibility to confront poverty, exclusion from school, insecurity, harmful traditional practices and gender discrimination that push girls into early marriage.
She stressed that success would not be measured by speeches and documents launched, but by the number of girls who stay in school or return to it, the number of communities that adopt protective practices, and the resources actually released.
The minister noted that child marriage interrupts education, exposes girls to early pregnancy and health risks, increases vulnerability to violence and deepens intergenerational poverty.
She added “the new costed plan provides a practical basis for identifying financial and human resources, assigning institutional responsibilities and tracking expenditure and results, while strengthening implementation of the Child Rights Act, 2003.”
Speaking at event, the representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Shafeeq Ur-Rehman decried the high prevalence of child marriage in Nigeria, particularly in the North-West and North-East, despite efforts to protect the rights of the girl child.
Chief of UNICEF Field Office Kano, Ur-Rehman, said child marriage remains a grave threat to children’s rights, cutting short girls’ education, exposing them to other protection risks and limiting their future.
Citing the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), he said about one in three young women nationally, and nearly one in two in the North-West and North-East, are married before the age of 18.
Ur-Rehman listed states with higher prevalence than the national average of 33.4 percent to include Bauchi with 74 percent, Jigawa 72 percent, Katsina 69 percent and Kano 39 percent.