Nigeria, Jan. 12 -- With the edge of her wrapper, Bola wiped off beads of sweat running through her forehead. Outside the shade under which she sat with her colleagues, the afternoon sun shone with fury.

Bola had peeled cassava tubers for more than two hours before PREMIUM TIMES' reporter arrived her mother's shop in Ilaro, a community in Ogun state, she said.

Together with her younger ones, she explained that she would peel two baskets of cassava tubers before dusk. On two occasions in the past, one of her coworkers had her fingers cut during the activity, she lamented.

"It's very tedious but once you finish peeling the cassava, the process becomes easier," she explained, forcing a bland smile, her knife carefully placed by the side o...