Nigeria's population is one of the country's most important resources.
The population is growing diffidently and it is youthful. At the current growth
rate, based on the fertility rate revealed by the DHS, Nigeria will become the
fourth largest country in the world by population in 2050.
In order to exploit the huge human resources, Nigeria will
need to make faster progress in reducing newborn, infant and child mortality.
Nigeria also needs to drastically reduce maternal mortality, at the same time
increasing reproductive health services and rights-based family planning.
Nigeria also needs to rapidly increase access to quality education for literacy
and numeracy among our girls and women, especially in the Northern parts of the
country where the DHS data shows appalling statistics in this regard. She
should find culture-appropriate ways to empower her girls and women to
participate in building the nation in a contemporary way.
Another important aspect revealed by the DHS is with regard to the nutritional status of Nigeria's children. Nearly 4 out of 10 children under 5 years of age are stunted in Nigeria due to malnutrition. This is a huge heartbreak for two main reasons. Firstly, malnutrition contributes to half of child’s death and diseases in Nigeria. Secondly, malnutrition leads to cognitive shortage in a child's development which at population level means that the potential human capital of the nation is detracted by the effect of malnutrition. The newborns, children and youth of today will need to have the intellectual capacity to compete in a globalized and competitive world in the decades to come. Yet, today, malnutrition is depriving them of the ability to reach their potential, even if they survive childhood.
In order to
explain the relationship between health and economic growth, it is necessary to
understand the concept of health in an expansive sense. Health is not only the
absence of illnesses; it is also the ability of people to develop to their
potential during their entire lives. In that sense, health is an asset
individuals possess, which has essential value (being healthy is a very
important source of well-being) as well as helpful value. In instrumental
terms, health impacts economic growth in a number of ways. For example, it reduces
production losses due to worker illness, it increases the productivity of adult
as a result of better nutrition, and it lowers absenteeism rates and improves
learning among school children. Health also allows for the use of natural
resources that used to be totally or partially out-of-the-way due to illnesses.
Finally, it permits the different use of financial resources that might
normally be destined for the treatment of ill health. In totting up, health
affects economic growth directly through labor productivity and the economic
burden of illnesses.
Additionally,
the loss of health affects the poor to a greater extent since the main, and at
times, only asset they have is their body. When they become ill they have fewer
alternative solutions and suffer greater consequences the results of historical
studies suggest a very strong relationship between health and economic growth.
Robert W. Fogel finds that between one third and one half of England’s economic
growth in the past 200 years is due to improvements in the population’s food
consumption.
With all
this in mind, we can now understand the impact investment in health will have
in the lives of the people and the economy. It means, healthier populations,
which in turn increases productivity to a large extent, healthy children and
families which in turn increases literacy and quality care and reduced hospital
visits. Finally the resources meant for health care will be channeled to other productive
sectors. This will only happen when the government makes the health sector its
priority and invest in it.
Uchechi Okonmah
