Nigeria's population shoots to 157m

  1. Posted on Friday 31 July 2009 - 08:14
    KingsleyKobo
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    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
    West African nation - Nigeria - now has a population of 157 million, the country's Society for Reproductive and Family Health said. The organization called for "a serious enlightenment on family planning to check our country's annual growth rate of five million births with six million pregnancies."
    nigeria
    The Director of SRFH, Professor Oladapo Ladipo warned of the challenges such as a high growth rate could pose, like unemployment, pressure on available resources in hospitals and educational institutions, and environmental degradation.

    Prof. Ladipo revealed these new figures at the complex of the National Assembly in Abuja (capital) during the commissioning of a resource centre for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – an international development achievement programme signed by 192 United Nations member states, according to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria.

    Ladipo tasked the Planned Parenthood of Nigeria (PPFN), a government-sponsored group, which embarks on family planning campaign, to intensify the campaign on how and why Nigerians should embrace birth control.

    Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and world’s eight most populous. Official figures from 2006 housing and population census pegged the country’s population at 140 million. But United Nations 2007 estimate was 148 million.

    AfricaNews reporter said with these new figures of 157 million, the Nigerian population is no doubt responding too slowly to the different measures of birth control past and present governments have applied.

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