The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria,Fatima Samoura, on Monday, March 8 said Africa’s population has been projected to be two billion.
Samoura added that out of this figure one billion would be below 25 years in the next 34 years.
The official disclosed this at opening of Regional Leadership Summit on the African Demographic Dividend in Abuja. The three-day summit is organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Samoura said the idea of the regional summit is to transform the huge population into an opportunity for economic and scientific development. She said the summit would also ensure that the outcome of the discussions and other documents did not stop on the economy but also goes to education and other disciplines.
She said some universities in Africa do not adjust their curricular to the needs of science, technology and economy but remain very traditional and vertical in the way they are approaching demographic dividends.
“The concept of demographic dividend, which is integral to inclusive growth and poverty reduction; is not new, but dates back to Reverend Thomas Malthus (1798).
“Issues of the demographic dividend have gained prominence in international development arena due to the increasing and obvious relationship between population dynamics and sustainable development.”
“This has also resulted in many international affirmations on population and development including the `Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
She said the Agenda 2030 underlines the importance of integrating population dynamics into development interventions. She stressed the need to take population projections and trends into consideration in development policies planning and implementation.
