From This Day

The European Union (EU) has warned Nigeria over ‎a possible future food insecurity challenge and insurgency due to the high demographic growth rate in the Northern part of the country.

Head of Operations, EU Delegation to Nigeria, Mr. Brian O’ Neil  explained that the demographic growth in the Northern part of Nigeria has a growth rate of 3 per cent which doubles every 20 years, maintaining that if Nigeria cannot feed its teeming population now, the situation is likely to get much worse.

‎ “The population of Northern Nigeria doubles every 20 years. If we have a major food security issue today, it is going to get much worse. So we really need to concentrate on the multi-sector approach because a population growth at that level will damage us in a way that we do not understand and would drive insurgency,” he said.

O’ Neil sounded this warning during the 3rd EU-Nigeria business forum tagged “Time for Private Sector”‎ in Lagos
In his words, ” The need for rapid action is required. We have to adopt a mulit-sector approach in health, nutrition, social production and family planning.”

He added that the malnutrition rate and mortality rate are both abnormally high in northern Nigeria, stressing that  UNICEF estimates that over 1 million children under 2 years of age are currently at high risk of acute malnutrition in northern Nigeria.
“This need not be. This great and fertile land is more than capable of feeding its entire people adequately. Recent advances in understanding Nigeria has helped  Nigeria to fortify and improve the nutrition quality of food, also leading to an increased production of higher value products,” he said.

According to him, ‎farmers are becoming increasingly aware of the extra revenue that comes from better crops, stating that most of the essential ingredients such as micro nutrients ‎to fortify foods can be found in the country.

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