No fewer than 250 million Nigerians will fall into poverty in the coming years if the federal government fails to invest in healthcare and education, NewsSpecng learnt.
The United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) says the only way out is for the government to take action.
UNFPA Country Representative, Ms Ulla Mueller, spoke at a recent parliamentary summit to fast track Nigeria’s demographic transition.
She said: “The imperative we have is to take actions now, in a world of 8 billion people, in a country that in a very few years will be the third most populous in the world, there could be 250 million people that could feel sense of opportunities and possibilities, but with the wrong investment, there could be 250 million people living in increased poverty and increased insecurity.
“We have to record this. To do that without family planning, there’ll be no universal health and demographic transition.”
Chairman, National Population Commission, Nasir Isa Kwarra, noted that harnessing the demographic dividend is not automatic, “but requires each nation to meet certain conditions that start with achieving a rapid and speedy fertility decline, holistically to permit sufficient demographic transition for economic transformation to occur.”
