Officials say verified data shows far fewer street beggars, challenge NGO to prove its figures.
The Kano State Bureau of Statistics (KSBS) has rejected claims that over two million underage children are living as street beggars, calling the figure misleading and unsupported by official data.
The bureau’s Director-General, Dr Suraj Sulaiman, said its own mapping across eight metropolitan LGAs identified just 6,573 street beggars — with children aged 0–10 making up only seven per cent (457 individuals), while youths aged 11–20 formed the majority.
He stressed that street begging in Kano is largely driven by poverty, unemployment, and limited access to education, not the massive child-begging crisis suggested in the NGO report.
KSBS challenged the NGO, Global Improvement of Less Privileged Persons Initiative (GIOPPINI), to provide proof of official approval for its survey and demanded a public retraction within 48 hours or face legal action for misrepresenting statistical data.
While acknowledging street begging remains a serious issue, the bureau said solutions must rely on credible data, noting that the state government has already declared a state of emergency in education and launched interventions to protect vulnerable children and youths.
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