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Director General of Nigeria's National Population Commission (NPC), Ghaji Bello, has said the country's population has increased to 182 million as of 2016, with more than half of the people under the age of 30. Bello stated this in an interview with Bloomberg, which was published on Tuesday.

The NPC Director General said the population estimate is based on an annual growth rate of 3.5 per cent and with reference to the 2006 census figure of 140 million population; and considering other variables such as rising life expectancy and falling infant mortality rate.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, accounting for 15.2 per cent of the continent's 1.2 billion (2015) population. Nigeria is also the 7th most populous country in the world after China (1.4 billion), India (1.3 billion), United States (321 million), Indonesia (256 million), Brazil (204 million), and Pakistan (199 million). Nigeria’s youth population is also growing, with people under the age of 14 accounting for more than 40 per cent of the citizens.

Dr. Bello noted that the population growth presents an enormous opportunity but can also become a risk if not properly harnessed.

“The implication is that they’re assets, they’re are the future of your country, but they are also liabilities,” the Director General of NPC said. “We need to know how to plan for their transition from youths to the next category. It has implications for education, health and security, particularly in our environment where you have a lot of unemployment.”

Notwithstanding the huge population, Nigeria's economy is currently experiencing a downturn caused mainly by the impact of low oil prices on the government's revenue as well as the drop in crude oil output owing to militant attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region. The economy is expected to contract by 1.7 per cent in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund, from 2.8 per cent GDP growth rate in 2015.

Due to the slowing economy, unemployment rate has steadily risen from 10.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2015 to 13.3 per cent as at the end of the second quarter of 2016, among other weakening macroeconomic indicators. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, youth unemployment also rose to 49.5 per cent in Q2 2016.

Dr. Bello said the Commission plans to obtain the biometric data of citizens during the next census exercise, whose timeframe he expects the government to announce soon. The biometric data is to ensure an accurate population figure. He also said the Commission is making efforts to improve birth and death registration records for more accurate adjustments of population figures between census years. Only about 40 per cent of births and 10 per cent of deaths are currently registered in Nigeria.

“It’s our mandate to produce figures that are accurate and credible,” Bello told Bloomberg.