Economy
THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said females were the prime targets for trafficking for prostitution in 2019 with a total of 373 females.
This is contained in the 7th Edition of the NBS Demographic Statistics Bulletin, 2021 released in Abuja.
The statistical bulletin presents an updated version of previous key demographic indicators such as population, trafficking in persons, fertility, mortality, reproductive health issues, and health records of births and deaths from 2018-2020.
It said the reported cases of trafficking in persons for prostitution were more in 2019, with a total of 373 females, aged 18 and 27.
The report, however, showed that in 2020, there was a significant reduction of recorded cases of female prostitution to 262, aged 18 and 27, while two males were recorded within the year for a similar age group.
The report said in terms of the number of trafficked persons, a total of 1,152 were recorded in 2019, and 1,087 in 2020, with a higher proportion of women trafficked over the period.
The report said the incidence of trafficked persons within the period under review showed that external trafficking for sexual exploitation was of a higher proportion compared to internal trafficking.
“This is particularly found to be common among persons aged 18 and above and peculiar to females than males.’’
The report said child abuse was disproportionately higher among females compared to their male counterparts, as seen in 2019 with 110 females and 21 males, aged one to 17.
It said 142 females and 47 males were recorded in 2020, while forced marriage recorded the least case within the same period.
Data on the population revealed that there had been a consistent increase in the number of births and deaths simultaneously.
The report said Nigeria’s population within the period under review was predominantly young people within the age range of 0 to 14, due to a high fertility rate of 5.3 per cent.
“This portrays a young population as a result of a high fertility rate and a consequent high dependency rate.
“It is also very apparent that the elderly who falls within the age range of 60 years and above are the least proportion of Nigeria’s population.’’
The report said that remittances inflow stood at 24.06 billion dollars in 018. This reduced to 23.55 billion dollars in 2019 and 17.00 billion dollars in 2020, showing a downward movement.
“On the other hand, outward remittances declined from 52.12 million dollars in 2018 to 49.99 million dollars in 2019. It stood at 56.44 million dollars in 2020, showing an improvement over 2019.’’
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Statistics on reproductive health showed in 2019 that women from the Southern region who visited health centres for antenatal care, at least four or more times before delivery were more compared to their counterparts in the Northern region.
“Further disaggregation of the data indicates that the North-West, North-East, and North-Central have recorded decreases in the knowledge and utilisation of modern methods of birth control or pregnancy prevention.
“This is in contrast to those from South-West, South-East, and South-South whose knowledge and utilisation of modern methods of birth control and pregnancy prevention is higher.’’
The report said the percentage of married women using one form of modern contraceptive method increased from four per cent in 1990 to 12 per cent in 2018.
Also, it said the traditional methods increased from three per cent in 1990 to five per cent in 2018.
“This shows that the modern application of contraceptives for birth control or pregnancy prevention is gaining wider acceptability than the traditional methods.
“However, this is not the case in the North, particularly among married women in the North-West and North-East.’’
The report said that live births and deaths had increased simultaneously since 2016, with 7.7 million live births and 2.4 million deaths in 2020.
The report showed that the total fertility rate in Nigeria for 2018 was 5.3 children per woman, implying a decreasing trend from previous years.
According to the report, fertility is low among adolescents aged 15 to 19 with 107 births per 1000 women and higher at 256 births per 1000 women aged 25 to 29.
“It was recorded at 217 births per 1,000 women aged 30 to 34 in 2018.’’ (NAN)
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Tags: NBS
