Expert seeks measures to check nation’s population growth

The former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Dr Samuel Nzekwe,  has called on the Federal Government to introduce new measures to check the rapid population growth in the country.

He said International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted Nigeria’ growth rate to be 2.5 per cent while World Bank projected its growth rate in 2020 at a 2.1.

It was also gathered that the Trading Economics Global Macro Models and Analysts Expectation showed that the country’s population growth rate, which currently stands at 200.963 million, was likely to increase to 205.000 by the end of this first quarter.

According to Nzekwe, the federal government needs to address this problem as the nation’s population is growing faster at three percent than its economic growth rate.

“The population rate should not be growing  higher than the economic growth rate of any nation that wants to achieve a sustainable economic growth,” Nzekwe said.

He explained that such population growth rate had grave consequences for the economy, which showed the economy was under producing.

According to him, such an underproducing economy promotes social vices such as kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry among others.

He called on the federal government to educate the people on the importance of population control mechanisms to achieve a sustainable economic growth.

The former ANAN boss harped on the need to promote girl-child education to discourage early marriages in some parts of the country.

He said over population would bring about unemployment and starvation in the country, if proactive measures were not taken to curb it.(NAN)