How Nigeria can develop like Asian Tigers, by UN chief

Nigeria, like the Four Asian Tigers, can achieve a highly developed economy through “planning and investments” in its young people, said Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin.

The Tigers are: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

“Make sure that once they come out of school or training they have access to credit. This will stimulate the economy in such a way that you would have growth. People would then start to do small and medium enterprises and be able to support themselves, support their communities, and support the country,” Osotimehin told reporters in Abuja, yesterday.

“That is the pattern we noticed in the Asian Tigers, and we can replicate this. But it requires great investments. It is not something that just happens,” he said.

The UN chief who regretted “young people are not getting what they require to perform and be part of economic and social development of their countries and of the continent,” disclosed: “We at UNFPA are working with various governments on the continent, including Nigeria, looking at what investments need to be put in place, in order to ensure that the youthful population of Africa, which is about 60-65 per cent, can be harnessed to work for the communities they come from and for the continent as well.”

Describing young people as the “greatest asset the continent has,” Osotimehin also stressed the importance of family planning in socio-economic development.

He said he was in Nigeria to work with the Federal Government to look at human development through the intervention of family planning.