Follow Us on Google
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Federal Government has warned that Nigeria’s rapidly growing population could become a liability rather than an economic asset if the country fails to invest adequately in health, education and human capital development.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, stated this at the inaugural meeting of the Nigeria Family Planning 2030 (FP2030) Inter-ministerial Platform, stressing the need for coordinated government action to harness the country’s demographic potential.
Pate said Nigeria’s estimated population of about 230 million people was expected to rise to between 450 million and 500 million by 2050, potentially making the country the third or fourth most populous nation in the world.
He, however, said population size alone was not an asset, stressing that the people must be healthy, educated and productive for the country to derive economic benefits from its demographic strength.
“Our population is our greatest asset. Not oil, not the mineral resources under the soil, but our people,” the minister said.
Other News
He noted that Nigeria currently adds between eight million and 10 million people to its population annually, making it imperative for the government to implement policies capable of transforming the growing population into a productive workforce.
He said: “Failure to do so could turn the country’s demographic advantage into a major liability. That asset has to be one that is productive to meet up with that vision of a prosperous, peaceful and people-oriented country.
“If we fail in doing that, that population that we will have can easily become a liability. And we don’t want that future to be the one that manifests,” he said.
The minister said the Federal Government’s approach was to view population development across the entire life cycle, from adolescence and education through reproductive health, childbirth, childhood, youth and entry into the labour market, to adulthood and old age.
He explained that the newly established interministerial platform was designed to ensure that different government institutions contributed according to their respective mandates towards achieving better health, human capital development and national productivity.
