Nigeria Faces Serious Development Gaps With Growing Population -IMF

Nigeria’s Population to Grow by 60m Between Now and 2030

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday said Nigeria is facing serious development gaps with the population expected to grow by 30 percent or about 60 million between now and 2030.

In the report “Technical Assistance Report -Additional Spending Toward Sustainable Development Goals” completed in April 2020 but released on the Fund’s website on Monday, the Washington DC-based organisation said only about 54 percent of the population is connected to the power grid that collapses about once a month.

The Fund puts Nigeria’s healthy life expectancy at 49 years, placing the nation among the bottom six nations in the world. Also, the nation’s roads are in precarious condition with less than 4 percent of the population having access to safely managed water.

“Overall, Nigeria’s indicators of human and physical capital are worse than countries with lower GDP per capita,” the IMF stated.

“Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy. Its population is projected to grow by 30 percent—about 60 million people—between now and 2030. To raise living standards, reduce poverty, and provide better opportunities for the growing youth, Nigeria needs to invest more on its people—education and health—and its infrastructure—roads, electricity, and water and sanitation.”

IMF further explained that the nation must at least invest 18.1 percent of the GDP in infrastructural development by 2030 to raise living standards. It stated that spending on education must increase by 7.7 percent points of GDP to cater for the fast-growing population.

It expects spending in the health sector to improve by 4.3 percent points of the GDP and water and sanitation to take another 3.1 percent points given the poor state of clean water and environmental degradation.

“Nigeria ranks low in quality measures among low-income countries. For example, only 20 percent of pupils that complete primary school can read a three-sentence passage fluently or with little help, compared with 50 percent in Ghana and 80 percent Rwanda and Tanzania.6 Among 44 economies in Africa, Nigeria is in 39th place in harmonized tests scores. This lower quality is equivalent to losing about 4 years of schooling,” the Fund stated.