The Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Mr Eze Duruiheoma, has called for massive investment in youths for Nigeria to reap maximum benefits from its demographic dividend.
Duruiheoma made this appeal at the “1st Private Sector Conference on Harnessing Demographic Dividend in Nigeria” organized by NPC and other development partners in Lagos.
The theme of the conference is: “The Role of the Private Sector in Harnessing Demographic Dividend in Nigeria”.
“The bulk of the country’s population is young with about half under the age of 35 years and characterised by high dependency ratios and unemployment.
“Accelerated changes in this age structure and decline in dependency ratio will result in potential economic growth and human development called demographic dividend due to increased labour income and savings.
“However, although the country has experienced sustained economic growth in the past decade, almost two in every three people are still poor.
“Nigeria, therefore, needs accelerated growth to reduce poverty and inequality, and improve living standards,” he said.
The chairman also said that strategic investment to lower fertility, mortality, dependency ratio, consumption and increase income and savings were of paramount significance to harnessing demographic dividend.
According to him, demographic transition that yields demographic dividend can only be achieved through investments in health education and jobs for young people.
“One strategy that can contribute to this process is investments in private enterprise,” he said.
Duruiheoma said that the commission was committed to working toward the realization of demographic dividend in line with its constitutional mandate.
He said that attaining the goals of demographic dividend required the availability of accurate and up-to-date data on the population size and age distribution of the country.
According to him, this is to to track progress made and identify areas of improvements.
“The commission will live up to this responsibility through the conduct of censuses and specialized surveys,” the chairman said.
The conference aims at taking a holistic look at the challenges and opportunities in implementing the Nigeria Road Map on Harnessing Demographic Dividend through private sector investment in young people.
Some of the objectives include to increase the understanding of harnessing demographic dividend among the private sector organisations and the potential impact it would have on Nigeria’s development.
Others include to create a call to action led by private sector to promote investment in harnessing demographic dividend and to leverage on the foum and create a private sector alliance on harnessing demographic dividend in Nigeria.
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