About 250 million Nigerians will fall into poverty in years to come, if the Federal Government of Nigeria fails to invest in healthcare and education, the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), has claimed.
Ms. Ulla Mueller, UNFPA Country Representative, made the revelation on Monday in Abuja at a parliamentary summit to fast track Nigeria’s demographic transition.
According to her, the imperative the country has now is to take actions, stressing that 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 a sense of opportunities and possibilities.
She believes that with the wrong investment, there could be 250 million people living in increased poverty and increased insecurity.
The Country Representative said, “We have to record this. To do that without family planning, there’ll be no universal health and demographic transition.”
Nasir Isa Kwarra, Chairman, National Population Commission, believed that it was not automatic harnessing the demographic dividend 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.