FG reveals Nigeria’s current population

The National Population Commission (NPC) has put Nigeria's current
population at 198 million people, with urban population growing at an
average annual growth rate of about 6.5 per cent

Chairman of NPC, Mr Eze Duruiheoma, stated this in New York while
delivering Nigeria's statement on Sustainable Cities, Human Mobility
and International Migration at the 51st Session of Commission on
Population and Development.

Duruiheoma said: "Nigeria remains the most populous in Africa, the
seventh globally with an estimated population of over 198 million.

"The recent World Population Prospects predicts that by 2050, Nigeria
will become the third most populated country in the world.

"Over the last 50 years, the Nigeria's urban population has grown at
an average annual growth rate of more than 6.5 per cent without
commensurate increase in social amenities and infrastructure.

"It grew substantially from 17.3 in 1967 to 49.4 per cent in 2017. In
addition, the 2014 World Urbanisation Prospects report, predicts that
by 2050, most of the population – 70 per cent – will be residing in
cities.

"The 2010 human mobility Survey report revealed that 23 per cent of
the sampled population were of more females than males".

He said the category of population mostly engaged in urbanisation and
migration were young people of teenage and adolescents' girls and
boys, women of child bearing age and the working age population.

He said existing urbanisation trend coupled with internally displaced
persons (IDPs) in cities, pose critical challenges to securing
sustainability of our cities, including efforts to make them smart and
responsive to human influx.

"The Displacement Tracking Matrix round XXI of January 2018 identified
estimated 1.7 million IDPs in over 321,580 households across six
states of North-East Nigeria with 40 per cent residing in camp-like
settings in urban areas plus 1.4 million returnees.

"The number of IDPs represented 4.5 per cent increase compared to the
1,702,680 identified in Round XX (Dec. 2017)," he added.

Duruiheoma said like in other developing countries, Nigerian cities
hosted wide spread poverty, under-employment and unemployment at an
average of 18.4 per cent, according to the National Bureau of
Statistics 2017 report.

The NPC boss bemoaned the insecurity and inadequate and inequitable
health care services for adolescents and women of child bearing age.

"Nigeria continues to commit to solving the challenges of insurgents
in the Northeast, which has induced a high number of internally
displaced persons.

"We acknowledge that women, children and particularly the girl child
are often the most vulnerable in these displacements, and in this
regard, we remain focused on the wellbeing of these vulnerable parts
of our population.

"We are committed to providing adequate health care services, reducing
maternal mortality, rebuilding safe schools and empowering our women,
ensuring no one is left behind in terms of achieving sustainable
development," he said.