 The Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning and UNICEF and other development partners deserve our commendation for the very hard work and their resourcefulness in researching and producing these seminal reports. It is impossible to conceive of and implement effective policies without a well-rounded view of the challenges on the ground, particularly in a country as complex and as nuanced as Nigeria. It is clear from the situation analysis and the multi-dimensional child poverty reports that we still have vast amounts of ground to cover, and the urgency with which we need to do so I think is evident to us all of the Federal Government's national poverty reduction with growth strategy, and its wide-ranging implications for creating decent livelihoods for millions of people. There is also the At-Risk Children's Program, Act P, which combines formal education, skills and health as a multi-faceted community intervention led by the states and coordinated by the Federal Government, who can speak about the urgency with which the Nigeria's SDG implementation plan 2020-2030 is being executed, and the improvements we have made in spite of the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in creating social safeguards for the family through the delivery of basic services, especially water and sanitation. There are also the positive improvements we have witnessed in the provision of universal health coverage and the increase of the attendance and care of women at birth. We can also speak with some pride about this administration's substantial progress in raising the number of states that have now enacted the Child Rights Law from 23-30 in just two years. We can speak about a community-based nutrition screening of children that has enhanced support for quality services, thereby reaching thousands of children, and how simultaneous comprehensive public policies are making vast improvements in nutrition and safeguarding education. Policies like the Northeast Nigeria Maternal Nutrition, Infants and Young Child Nutrition guidelines, including protocols, indicators and evaluation strategies, the national policy on safety, security and violence-free schools, the guidelines which have been developed by the Federal Ministry of Education, and of course our continued engagement of the media and civil society in sanitizing the public on critical needs and conducting campaigns aimed at behavioral change as a prerequisite for improvement of access across all industries, for improvement across all industries. But as long as we still have an estimated huge number of out-of-school children, many more with severe and acute malnutrition, those forced into early marriage, recruited into armed conflict, denied access to safe drinking water and hygiene, subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, exploited, deprived of access to health and other acts. As long as we still have just one child in deprivation and at risk, our work is certainly not nearly done. And this is the sense of urgency with which we receive the situational analysis of children in Nigeria in multi-dimensional child poverty reports, one that frankly challenges and calls to action every stakeholder from the federal government to the states and local governments, from the media and civil society to development partners, caregivers and of course parents. The current number of children under the age of five stands at about 31 million, with an additional five million and some say seven, being added every year. As Nigerian population continues to surge, especially in regions where early marriage is prevalent, we find ourselves caught in the vicious cycle where population growth outstrips economic growth and different poverty. The socio-cultural and socioeconomic factors that allow for these continued impediments to the well-being of our children are well within our control and we must rise up to our duties and responsibilities as governments and citizens to roll them back and roll them back speedily. Statistics show that 60% of out-of-school children in Nigeria are girls. The lack of access to education further inhibits their ability to access quality healthcare, to gain information about sexual and reproductive rights, and to make informed decisions or even have stable family relationships. So this lack of education and agency for the girl child ultimately shapes the outcome of her adult life and translates into her own family, children and community, perpetuating a vicious cycle, a showing of the wind that pretends looming whirlwinds, that will eventually sweep us all out if we do not rise up to the challenge and do so speedily. Of course there are political decisions that must and that have been taken by the federal state and local governments across the country to reverse this, especially in the north-eastern-northwest, which are most hit by these incidences. But all of these must be complemented by moral and cultural changes. Every thinking of the value systems that subordinate the education and general well-being of children, particularly the girl child, to diverging adult interests and changes that are more effectively carried out at the community and family level. The federal government will continue to lead the charge and our commitment and work in this regard will be all the more data-driven, helped along in no small way by the reports that are going to be presented today. There is a dire need to increase children-focused interventions, especially where challenges of insecurity persist, and we need every hand on that. For many of these children, formal education remains an illusion. Skills are virtually nonexistent. Many face exposure to physical and sexual abuse, exploitation of human conditions, and vulnerability to criminal networks, with deteriorating security situations leading to future disputes, where children, of course, being the most vulnerable suffer the most. Sustainable solutions to these challenges require an interplay between poverty reduction, the digital economy, health and employment, and a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling them. There are situations regarding the well-being of our children that can only be effectively dealt with at the level of caregiving and parenting, some at the level of community. And this is where we as Africans have been historically known to excel. And so our communities everywhere must rise to the challenge because the survival of our children and our future and our continued existence as its people depends on it. Again, let me commend the Honourable Minister of State, the Budget and National Planning, the Permanent Secretary and all the collaborating MDAs and CSOs, and our development partners for their commitment and their effective coordination in delivering a comprehensive analysis of the state of the Nigerian child. I believe that we can, in this decade, permanently end child poverty and deprivation in Nigeria. The key task, it seems to me, is to convert the political, the religious and cultural wills to the resolution of what really is an existential challenge. We must not rest until the future of every child in Nigeria is guaranteed. Happy Children's Day once again and thank you very much for your kind attention.