Nigerians do not feel the impacts of the current economic growth because the rate of population growth is much higher than the rate of the economic growth, President Goodluck Jonathan has said.
Jonathan said this yesterday while inaugurating the new chairman and commissioners of the National Population Commission (NPC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said: “Only yesterday when we had our Economic Management Team meeting here, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister said when people talk about the growth of the economy at 6 to 7 per cent but it is not impacting on the people. People say if the economy is growing, it should, in a way, impact on the lives of people like employment, feeding and other things.
“And the finance minister said well, if the economy is growing at a particular rate and our population is growing much more than the growth of the economy, then we have challenges. When we relate the two, the economic rate and population rate then you run at negative, and probably these are the issues.
“When we have a country that the population is growing than the way our economy is growing, then, we must know our population figures so that governments at federal, state and local levels will be able to plan because you cannot plan base on what you don’t know, but if you know, you can plan for it. If we know the total number of children we are expecting, then, you will know how to expand the facilities you have in your basic education institutions.
