(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria announced new birth-control measures to address high fertility rates in Africa's most populous country.
The government will expand access to family planning and counseling, President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement Thursday in Abuja, the nation's capital.
Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will lead a new National Council on Population Management that will drive initiatives to “achieve rapid fertility control,” and improve the health of women and children, he said.
Nigeria is the world's seventh most-populous nation, with an estimated 206 million people, according to World Bank data. More than 72% of them are under 30, while half the female population is of child-bearing age -- complicating efforts to manage population growth, Buhari said.
The new “policy addresses concerns of the large population of young people who are our pride,” he said, in a context of high unemployment and poverty levels.
“When fertility falls, savings rise, so investment rises and this creates new jobs,” Charles Robertson, Global Chief Economist at Renaissance Capital Ltd., said at a virtual conference Thursday.
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