NIGERIA: Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has called on African governments to enforce 18 years as the minimum age of marriage, warning that child marriage threatens girls’ education and undermines human capital development.
Ezekwesili, founder of Human Capital Africa, also urged traditional and religious leaders to partner with governments in ending the practice, reports Channels TV.
In a statement on Sunday to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, she called for stronger legal protections, increased domestic funding for girls’ education and improved accountability measures to tackle child marriage.
The former minister disclosed that 23.6 million women and girls in Nigeria were married before the age of 18, making the country the most affected in West and Central Africa in terms of the number of girls and women subjected to child marriage.
She cited Jigawa State as an example of the scale of the problem, noting that 78 per cent of women aged 20 to 49 in the state were first married before turning 18, while 63 per cent of women left school to get married.
“A girl who learns is a girl who is not a bride. Today the world is asked to end child marriage and invest in girls’ rights,” Ezekwesili said.
She explained that her advocacy was informed by her involvement in international and continental initiatives on girls’ education, including the advisory council behind Columbia University’s report, Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage.
She also highlighted her role as the civil society representative on the Steering Committee of the African Union’s Decade of Accelerated Action for the Transformation of Education and Skills Development in Africa (2025–2034).
According to her, Africa’s human capital challenges begin in the early years of education, making girls’ access to quality learning and their retention in school essential to the continent’s development.
Ezekwesili warned that the economic consequences of child marriage were enormous, citing an analysis by the Center for Global Development included in the Columbia University report.
The analysis estimated that child marriage could cost the global economy up to $175 billion annually, with cumulative losses reaching almost $2.5 trillion by 2040 through reduced productivity and increased health risks.
She further cautioned that cuts in foreign aid, declining global commitment to women’s rights and rising conflicts could slow or reverse progress in tackling child marriage.
“Child marriage is not a side issue in development. It drains a nation’s human capital directly,” she said.
However, Ezekwesili noted that progress was possible, citing estimates that 68 million child marriages had been averted globally over the past 25 years through girls’ education, legal reforms and social protection programmes.
She urged African governments to translate commitments into concrete action by strengthening legal protections and addressing the educational and social factors that leave girls vulnerable to early marriage.
“Enforce 18 as the minimum age of marriage in law and in practice, in every state and every community, with traditional and religious leaders as partners,” she said.
The former minister also called for greater domestic investment in ending child marriage, arguing that African governments and philanthropic organisations must increase their contributions as foreign aid declines.
She urged governments to establish national accountability systems to track girls’ learning outcomes, transition to secondary education and child marriage rates.
Ezekwesili said the African Union’s Decade of Education provided an opportunity to make girls’ education and school retention central to Africa’s development agenda.
“As a member of its Steering Committee, I will press for girls’ learning and retention to be at the centre of how the Decade’s success is measured. A Decade that does not end child marriage will not have transformed African education,” she added.
