Child Labor in Nigeria- hurting or helping the economy?

· Child labor is evident in Nigeria, where the overall prevalence of child labor was 64.5%: 68.6% among primary and 50.3% among secondary school pupils. All of these children were of low socio-economic status and/or of poorly educated. Child labor was also significantly associated with increasing number of children in the family size. I believe that in the long run, child labor will not help promote and aid economic growth. In the present, child labor does not really increase or decrease economic growth, but really is just stabilizing it. About 60% of the Nigerian population lives at or below the poverty line and the average income per day is $1. If the two parents are the only members of the family who are working, for say three or four children, $2 a day four will not sufficiently provide for needs of the entire family. For this reason, employing children is necessary in order to survive. This though can only work economically for the present. Because Nigeria is not yet a totally developed country, they need as many diverse resources as they can muster because as answered in a previous question, Nigeria can not stand to afford to just simply focus on oil exportation alone. They need to diversify their industries and economy and the only way that they can do this is through educating children, especially in the areas of science, technology, business, and healthcare.