By IJEOMA UKAZU
Nigeria, the most populous black nation, is home to over 200 million people with an annual population growth of 2.61 percent. Currently, over 33.6 million (16.8 percent) Nigerians are regarded as youths (aged between 15 and 35).
However, according to statistics, about 43.69 percent of Nigeria’s total population were aged 0 to 14 in 2019. This means that in the nearest future, the youth will increasingly form the bulk of the country’s population as children grow older into young adults.
With this teeming young population, if not properly checked by massive investment in family planning and interventions, this large young population will continue to increase the fertility rate with no impact on the economy.
By projection and with the current rate, the nation’s population will be about double to over 400 Million by 2050, the Population Data Sheet states.
With this youthful population, comprised of people under the younger age group than the working-age group according to experts, having a very large proportion of young people in a nation’s population structure can present numerous challenges as well as opportunities.
Looking at Nigeria’s current status, with fewer births each year and a decline in fertility, the country can have the reverse. More working adults than children, more workers than dependents and would present a window of opportunity for accelerated economic development.
Experts define this as a demographic dividend, however, they said, it is not automatic as there must be strong planning and investments in family planning, education, health, infrastructure and good governance to convert the opportunity to all-round economic growth.
The economic growth of any country is measured by its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, which is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within the country’s border in a specific period. As a broad measure of overall domestic production, it functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a given country’s economic health.
To this end, for Nigeria to reach its development goals, it must reduce its fertility rate by investing in family planning and child spacing.
Reproductive health experts define fertility as a natural capability to produce offspring. When fertility rates in a community increase, more babies are born.
Stating some challenges posed by having a huge young population in a forum recently, the Program Officer Reproductive Health and Family Planning, Pathfinder International Nigeria, Yusuf Nuhu said, “Nigeria need to grow more food to feed the increased population. This raises questions about food security. Other associated challenges to this include nutrition and climate change.
“Without investments and labour policies, a large number of people will be jobless. This may pose security challenges and a breakdown of law and order. There is also the aspect of rural-urban migration and stretching of social services beyond their threshold.”
Suggesting a way forward, Nuhu said, Nigeria needs to lower its fertility rate to slow down the population explosion and grow economically through strong family planning programs supported by all stakeholders.
Lowering fertility, according to him would enable today’s large young population to enter adulthood with fewer dependents, adding that, with favourable education, health, and labour policies, a larger proportion can be employed and support economic growth.
In addition, the reproductive health expert posits that investment in infrastructure and attracting investments can also help the teeming population gainfully employed.
Speaking to stakeholders, Nuhu said, the planning has to be now and continue to be dynamic with emerging issues every day. Leaders need to be challenged to ensure quality education and health care are provided for all, skills acquisition is prioritized, infrastructure optimized and continuous attraction of investment.
However, without these, he opines that today’s challenges will be amplified as the number of young people continues to grow and demand for social services continues to increase.
In the views of Dr Sakina Amin-Bello, Senior Programme Advisor, Reproductive Health, Pathfinder International Nigeria said, the high fertility rate in Nigeria, is due to the high demand for children as a cultural, traditional, and social norm, early marriage; the high unmet need for family planning.
According to her, all the aforementioned has an ill effect on maternal health especially if the births are not adequately spaced, it affects the physical, mental and social well-being of women and children.
The Reproductive Health expert said, for the children, the risk of mortality in infancy and early childhood is greater for closely spaced births and the mother, high risk of haemorrhaging and mortality.
To curb this, she said, “the higher the contraceptive use, the lower the fertility rate. So, to reduce the high Total Fertility Rate in Nigeria, there is a need to increase the uptake of family planning services among women of reproductive age.
Reeling out some useful strategies, Amin-Bello said, sustained advocacy to the government for funding and enabling policy environment to reduce barriers to family planning access to the barest minimum as well as more demand generation for family planning
By reducing the fertility rate of women with the use of family planning, maternal and child mortality would be lowered.