Stakeholders have called for inclusive policies, good governance, and expanded opportunities to address challenges facing Nigerian youths as the country marks this year’s World Population Day.
Marking the day, the National Population Commission (NPC) said that for the country to achieve its aspirations, the government must invest in Nigeria’s young people.
Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Aminu Yusuf, who made the statement to mark this year’s World Population Day, said, “Seventy percent of the estimated 238 million of Nigeria’s population is under the age of 30.”
According to Dr. Yusuf, this “presents immense opportunities for innovation, productivity, entrepreneurship, technological advancement, social transformation, and economic growth.”
He added that this “makes young people one of Nigeria’s greatest national assets and one of the most important determinants of her future development trajectory.”
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“This is why investing in young people must be understood as both a development imperative and a demographic imperative,” he also stated.
“If we want to harness the demographic dividend, we must ensure that young people are equipped to participate productively in the economy and society,” Dr. Yusuf advised.
According to him, “demographic dividend is not created by numbers alone, but by making the right investments and establishing the right policies to ensure that its population, particularly its growing working population, is healthy, educated, skilled, productive, and economically engaged.”
Dr Yusuf said that there is an urgent need to address the challenges facing young Nigerians, noting that they seek education, decent jobs, secure lives, meaningful participation in decision-making, opportunities to innovate and contribute to national development, and freedom to shape their own future.
Also speaking, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in a message, said Nigeria is one of the nations with the youngest populations on earth.
Guterres, whose speech was read by the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Mohamed Malick Fall, noted that “31.8 percent of the Nigerian population, which he put at about 73 million people, are aged between 10 and 24.”
“Their aspirations, their energy, and their capacity for leadership are the most powerful resources this country possesses,” he stated.
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