Creating Nigeria’s Ministry for the Future: Why Nigeria Must Prioritize Children and Early Childhood Development.

By Orondaam Otto

When we speak of Nigeria’s potential, we often invoke its vast mineral reserves, arable land, oil wealth, its resilient spirit or its growing tech and entertainment ecosystem. Rarely do we speak first, and foremost, about its children.

Yet, nothing more accurately captures the soul and future of a nation than the way it treats its youngest and most powerful citizens. In this regard, we must ask ourselves: how have we done?

Let us begin by setting aside our assumptions, if only for a moment. Let us open our minds, without bias or limitations, and imagine what Nigeria could become 30 years from now if we dared to think differently and act boldly today. This piece is an invitation, not only to defend the present, but to reflect on the future we deserve.

It is quite impressive to see that we have created different new ministries for livestock development, steel development, and blue economy, with about 48 separate ministers overseeing different ministries. However, we have not yet created a ministry solely devoted to children or early childhood development. This is not just a gap in governance; it is a mirror reflecting our national priorities. And perhaps what we have unintentionally chosen to overlook.

Today, as Nigeria stands at a crossroads of development and demographic transition, this omission should no longer go ignored. Because the most strategic and transformative decision Nigeria can make today is to create a Ministry for Children and Early Childhood Development.

This is not a call for more bureaucracy. It is a call for more intentionality. For decades, Nigeria’s approach to education, particularly in the foundational years, has been fragmented, underfunded, and disconnected from our broader development goals. Yet all the evidence, both domestic and global, tells us that if we want to build a safer, more prosperous Nigeria, we must start from the very beginning: the early years of a child’s life.

Currently, over 43% of Nigeria’s population is under the age of 15, according to the United Nations World Population Prospects 2022. By 2050, our population is projected to exceed 400 million, making Nigeria the third most populous country in the world, after India and China. This is not just a statistic; it is a defining national condition. Whether this youth bulge becomes our greatest asset or our greatest liability will depend entirely on how we choose to invest in our children today.

Unfortunately, the data today paints a sobering picture. Nigeria ranks 150 out of 174 countries on the World Bank’s Human Capital Index. A child born in Nigeria today is expected to be only 36% as productive as they could be with access to proper health, nutrition, and education. Pre-primary enrollment remains below 22%, and our ranking on the Human Development Index is a staggering 163 out of 191 countries.
Meanwhile, countries that have prioritized children through intentional governance structures tell a different story.

Norway, for instance, which ranks first on the Human Development Index and maintains a Human Capital Index of 0.81, has a Ministry of Children and Families working in concert with its Ministry of Education. Nearly 97% of Norwegian children are enrolled in pre-primary education. Ireland, with a standalone Ministry for Children, ranks in the top 10 globally for both education outcomes and child well-being. New Zealand and Australia each have ministers specifically focused on early childhood development, and both countries have enrollment rates above 90%.

Perhaps most strikingly, the United Arab Emirates, despite its smaller population and newer history of institutional development, appointed a Minister of Early Childhood Education in 2023, recognizing the long-term returns of investing in children during the most formative years of life.
These nations, many of which are facing aging and declining populations, are doubling down on early investment. Nigeria, in contrast, is growing younger and increasing in population, and yet continues to invest less. This is a paradox we can no longer afford.
Around the world, a powerful consensus is taking shape and to build resilient and prosperous societies, nations are beginning by investing in early childhood. This global shift was powerfully reinforced at the UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (WCECCE) held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where over 1,500 leaders from 150 countries gathered to prioritize early learning as a foundation for sustainable development.

The conference culminated in the adoption of the Tashkent Declaration, urging all nations to allocate at least 10% of their education budgets to pre-primary education and develop inclusive early childhood systems. It also highlighted global best practices from countries such as Norway, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and the UAE, which have established ministries or offices dedicated to children and early childhood development.

Uzbekistan’s role as host country was particularly symbolic. Once considered a developing system, Uzbekistan has now emerged as a global example of what can be achieved with strong political will. The country has established a dedicated Ministry for Preschool and School Education, achieved over 95% enrollment in early childhood programs, and ensured zero out-of-school children in K–12 education. These milestones underscore the power of focused governance and inter-sectoral collaboration.

I had the honor of delivering the keynote address at the summit’s opening plenary and contributing to the policy memo and advocacy that shaped the final declaration. And throughout my participation, I asked myself, why have we chosen to fail our children in Nigeria. As the global spotlight shifts to nations that are prioritizing their youngest citizens, Nigeria must now rise to the moment, by aligning structurally, financially, and politically with a future that begins at the very start of life.

We often hear that Nigeria lacks resources, yet we continue to invest billions into sectors that will not yield half the return of a properly educated generation. According to Nobel Laureate James Heckman a globally respected economist at the University of Chicago, he proved through the Heckman Equation that every $1 invested in early childhood development generates between $7 and $13 in long-term returns. These returns come in the form of higher productivity, reduced crime rates, better health outcomes, and more stable economies. His research shows that early childhood education particularly for disadvantaged children, yields the highest return on investment compared to later educational or social interventions. In essence, early childhood education is not just a moral investment, it is the smartest economic strategy a country can pursue.

But smart strategies require the right structures. Presently, early childhood development in Nigeria falls under a patchwork of ministries and agencies, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Women Affairs, the Ministry of Youth Development, and parastatals like UBEC. While these officers have leaders with great qualifications and intentions, it is important to note that these institutions are working with limited tools, fragmented structures, underfunded programs, and the lack of a unified, child-focused structure has led to overlapping mandates, inconsistent implementation, and policy paralysis.

The result is that no single agency or ministry is held accountable for ensuring that children aged 0 to 10, those in their most critical stages of brain development are receiving the coordinated health, nutrition, protection, and learning they require.
This is where a Ministry for Children and Early Childhood Development becomes indispensable.

Such a ministry would serve as a strategic anchor, ensuring that all efforts targeting Nigeria’s youngest citizens are coherent, well-funded, and evidence-based. It would work collaboratively with other ministries but with a dedicated focus on the first eight years of life a period neuroscience has repeatedly proven to be the most critical in shaping the trajectory of any individual.

A functional, data-driven ministry would allow for the development and implementation of a national early childhood care and education (ECCE) framework. It would regulate and support ECCE centers across Nigeria, ensure training and licensing for early educators, and drive equitable access for marginalized children especially those in rural communities, conflict zones, and underserved slums. It would monitor the birth rates of infants, improve nutritional status of infants and toddlers, integrate child protection into all communities and early learning programs, and champion parental engagement as a national priority.

More than that, such a ministry would be able to mobilize both domestic and international funding. Donors and development partners are more likely to support countries with clear governance structures and measurable indicators. With a strong national strategy and political commitment, Nigeria could access new financing streams for ECCE, including results-based funding, global education partnerships, and climate-smart school infrastructure investment.

The case for this ministry is also deeply tied to Nigeria’s future competitiveness. In the 2024 Global Competitiveness Index, Nigeria ranks 127 out of 141 countries, largely due to weak education systems, a skills mismatch, and poor innovation pipelines. We cannot become a global player if our foundational education systems continue to lag behind.

It is not only about the economy, though. It is about dignity. It is about breaking cycles of poverty and exclusion. It is about giving every Nigerian child, regardless of where they are born a fair start in life.
Too often, children in urban slums, IDP camps, and rural villages are born into conditions that immediately place them at a disadvantage. Many are malnourished, unvaccinated, lack birth certificates and remain out of school before they even turn five. Their parents, though eager to give them a better life, are often themselves products of failed systems. Without intervention, the cycle repeats.

But cycles can be broken. That is the story of many nations that made deliberate, early investments. It can be our story too.

Of course, some may argue that creating a new ministry adds to government overhead. That we already have enough ministries. But this is not about quantity, it is about quality and priority. The existence of ministries for livestock development or a ministry for steel development, important as they may be, suggests that where there is political will, there is a way. Why then not for our children?

Others may say, “Let’s fix the Ministry of Education first.” But a focused ministry for children would not replace the Ministry of Education, it would complement and strengthen it. Actually to make this even more structured, we could merge the ministry for youths and the ministry for tertiary education, while having a ministry for early education and children. It would help unbundle the overburdened system, streamline focus and enable more targeted support for the early years, education, children and youth development.

Most importantly, it would send a message, to Nigerians, and to the world, that we are ready to lead with human capital at the center of our national development plan.
Every nation must, at some point, answer a defining question: What kind of future are we building?

The answer, for Nigeria, cannot lie only in oil rigs, steel manufacturing, coastal roads or railways. As important as they are, it must lie in the young minds we nurture, the lives we shape, and the dreams we empower. And that work begins not in adulthood, not in secondary school, but in the very first years of life.

It is time for us to raise the bar, and raise our children with it.
Nigeria’s greatest ministry has yet to be built. But when it is, it will not be made of concrete or glass. It will be built in the heart of every community, every mother, every teacher, every school, and every child whose potential was once forgotten but is now, finally, being honored.
If we choose to act now, the next generation of Nigerians will not remember this as the decade we missed our moment. They will remember it as the decade we finally got it right.
And that, more than anything, is a legacy worth building.

About the Author

Orondaam Otto is a Nigerian social entrepreneur, education reform advocate, and the Founder of Slum2School Africa—one of Africa’s leading volunteer-driven organizations working to transform access to education for underserved children. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of public policy, innovation, and community development, he has led groundbreaking initiatives that have impacted hundreds of thousands of children across Nigeria. Orondaam is a graduate of Public Administration and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he was awarded the prestigious Edward S. Mason Fellowship and the Lucius N. Littauer Award for outstanding leadership and academic excellence. In 2022, he delivered the keynote address at the UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education in Uzbekistan, where he played a key role in shaping the global policy memo that led to the adoption of the Tashkent Declaration. He remains a passionate voice for bold, child-centered reforms that place early learning at the heart of national development.