The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has predicted that approximately 250 million Nigerians will live in poverty if the Federal Government of Nigeria does not make investments in healthcare and education.
The revelation was made on Monday in Abuja at a parliamentary summit to hasten Nigeria’s demographic transition by Ms. Ulla Mueller, the UNFPA Country Representative.
She stressed that in a world of 8 billion people, in a country that will soon be the third most populous in the world, there could be 250 million people who could feel a sense of opportunities and possibilities. She argued that the country must act now.
According to her, 250 million people could experience increased poverty and insecurity if the wrong investments were made.
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 of the National Population Commission, was of the opinion that each country must first meet a number of requirements, beginning with a rapid and rapid decline in fertility, in order to allow for a sufficient demographic transition to allow for economic transformation.