UNICEF records low child marriage, mortality rate in Kano

The United nation children emergency fund (UNICEF) says its has recorded low child marriage and mortality from 44 percent to 30 percent in Kano since 2016 to date.

This was disclosed by UNICEF chief, Kano field office, Mr Rahama Rihood Mohammed Farah, during the launch of 2021 Kano state Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey.

According to him Child mortality reduced from 1 in 8 children mortality before their fifth birthday (MICS 2016) to 1 in 10 children (MICS 2021).

Senior Education Specialist of UNICEF, Mr. Michael Banda who represented Mr Farah, said the state recorded increase in exclusive breastfeeding from 24 per cent to 34 per cent, while nearly 60 per cent of Nigerian children are now registered at birth with civil authorities, compared to 47 per cent in 2016.

He added that in Education, seven out of every ten children (68%) of the right primary school age children are attending school or higher, while about five out of every 10 (50%) of senior secondary school age are attending secondary school or higher.

“we must question the status quo, and examine what has been our actions and inactions and their consequences on our collective development in Health, Nutrition, Education, Social Protection, WASH child protection and other social sectors to be elucidated in the presentations.” Mr Banda said.

“The data provided does not provide us with a causality-analysis but gives us a general trend to weigh our performance over years. We therefore need to examine factors behind our performance, be it positive or negative and find workable solutions to improve the various indices.” He added.

The information presented is specific to Kano State and should form the basis for developing various interventions as well as action plans.

Other participants are Rano emirate council, ministries of Education, Health, Budget and Planning as well as other ministries and departments.