United Nations Urges Nigeria To Harness Demographic Returns, Harps On Job Creation

June 22, 2019

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United Nations Urges Nigeria To Harness Demographic Returns, Harps On Job Creation

While many countries have already harnessed demographic dividend, Nigeria, among other Africa countries, still lag behind, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has said.UNFPA disclosed that the population of the world has doubled in the last 43 years, moving from 3.6 billion in 1969 to 7.7 billion in 2019.

Speaking at the UNFPA /Private Sector Celebration at 50 in Lagos, recently, UNFPA Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Eugene Kongnyuy, said Nigeria got into the track of possibly harnessing demographic dividend in 2003, following a study by the University of Ibadan, but didn’t progress much.

Stressing the need for a change in population structure, Kongnyuy canvassed more investments in health, education, entrepreneurship and job creation, and good governance for Nigeria to finally harness demographic dividend in the coming years.

In a World Population Prospect released by the UN on Monday, the medium-variant projection indicates that the global population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.9 billion in 2100.The data also shows that males outnumber females in Nigeria, and the world as a whole, negating the popular belief that women outnumber men in the West African country.

Nigeria is estimated to have 200,964,000 by mid-year 2019, with 99,132,000 million females and 101,832,000 males.
Speaking on Nigeria fully harnessing the dividend of democracy, he said: “I believe the government is fully aware, two years ago, the vice president launched the national road map for harnessing demographic dividend in Nigeria.

“In that roadmap, it clearly defines what will be done for Nigeria to harness the dividend. In summary, you have health, maternal and child mortality is drastically reduced, that young people are fully educated, and that there are enough jobs and that they have the skills to create jobs for themselves. In that roadmap there is a clear step that needs to be done and the government has started doing some of them.”