As part of programmes to commemorate the 2014 Population Day, the National Population Commission (NPC) has organised an outreach programme to sensitise youths in the FCT on HIV/AIDs and reproductive health issues.
Addressing the youths, chairman of the commission, Eze Duruiheoma, stated that the outreach is in line with the global theme: Investing In Young People.
The chairman who was represented by the commission’s head of Population Management, Saidu Usman, said called for more attention to be focused on population because it affects all aspects of life.
He explained that the youth were mobilised by UNFPA and other stakeholders who partnered with the NPC on the centralised outreach.
Also speaking UNFPA’s Programme Analyst on Data For Global Development, Dashe Dosogot, also made case for investment in young people, pointing out that any nation that neglects young people would be pulled back in development.
He maintained that Nigeria with youth making up over 32 per cent of its population needed to invest in young people through education and providing employment opportunities for them so as reap the demographic dividends.
In the same vein, the Programme Officer, Education and Youth Development, Ministry of Youth Development, Kenneth Aimufia, stated that the ministry through the Sure-P and MDGs programmes have been training and employing Nigerian youths.
He said that the ministry was sensitising the youths on opportunities available for the young people to benefit from the ministries programme.
