At 167 million people, Nigeria is currently ranked the sixth largest population in the world. This follows a report that the world’s population officially hit seven billion on Monday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged world leaders to meet the challenges that a growing population poses.
NAN Correspondents at the UN report that Nigeria’s population is projected to increase from 390 million in 2050 to 730 million by 2100.
According to recent estimates by the UN Population Division by 2100 Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world, next to India and China.
Speaking at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York to mark the milestone, Ban stressed the need for concerted action to address growing social and economic challenges of population growth.
He said the world was facing a number of problems, including famine in the Horn of Africa, fighting in Syria and global public anger at economic inequality.
According to him people have lost faith in governments and public institutions to do the right thing.
“Our world is one of terrible contradictions. Plenty of food but one billion people go hungry.
“Lavish lifestyles for a few, poverty for too many others.
“Huge advances in medicine while mothers die everyday in childbirth … and children die every day from drinking dirty water. Billions spent on weapons to kill people instead of keeping them safe.
“What kind of world has baby seven billion been born into?”
Highlighting some of the challenges in an expanding global community, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Babatunde Osotimehin stressed the need for the promotion of the rights and health of seven billion women, men and children.
“We must ensure that, in areas of the world where population is growing fast, we raise the status of women and young girls to be able to access education and make choices for themselves,” Osotimehin said at the press briefing.
“We also owe it to the 250 million women worldwide who require family planning and are not getting it to make it available,” he added.
The former Nigeria’s health minister said it was necessary to ensure safe pregnancy and delivery for every woman in addition to meeting the need of ageing populations in many parts of the world.

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