From the World Population Dashboard released on the agency’s website, the UN stated that “Nigeria’s population is now 201 million, the largest in Africa, while its immediate neighbours – Benin Republic, Niger, Chad and Cameroon – are 11.8 million, 23.2 million, 15.8 million and 25.3 million people, respectively.”

The UN agency noted that “life expectancy at birth in Nigeria is now 55 years while the maternity mortality ratio is 814 deaths per 100,000 live births as of 2015.”

It said that Nigeria’s growth rate was at an average of 2.6 per cent from 2010 to 2019, while the fertility rate among Nigerian women had dropped from 6.4 per cent in 1969 to 5.3 per cent in 2019.

The report said, “Reproductive rights are still out of reach for too many women, including the more than 200 million women globally who want to prevent a pregnancy but cannot access modern contraceptive information and services.”

“Ultimately, almost all of the 4.3 billion people of reproductive age around the world today will have had inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health services at some point.”

Source: PUNCH