World Bank President, Ajay Banga has said Nigeria is expected to add about 130 million people by 2050
He described the coming decades as a defining moment for developing nations.
Speaking at the 2025 Annual Meetings Plenary of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund, Banga said the surge would make Nigeria one of the most populous nations in the world, joining the ranks of countries whose demographic weight will determine the future of the global economy.
“We are living through one of the great demographic shifts in human history,” he said.
“By 2050, more than 85 percent of the world’s population will live in countries we call developing today. The pace of growth is most staggering in Africa, which will be home to one in four people on the planet.”
He warned that while the continent’s expanding youth population could become an engine of global growth, the lack of opportunities could just as easily fuel instability, unrest, and mass migration.
According to him, in the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people will enter the global workforce competing for roughly 400 million jobs, leaving a vast employment gap.
“Four young people will step into the global workforce every second over the next ten years,” he said.
“So in the time it takes to deliver these remarks, tens of thousands will cross that threshold—full of ambition, impatient for opportunity.”
Banga said this reality makes job creation central to every country’s development and security strategy.
“A job is more than a paycheck. It is purpose and dignity, the anchor that holds families steady and the glue that keeps societies together,” he stated.
Follow Us on Facebook – @LadunLiadi; Instagram – @LadunLiadi; Twitter – @LadunLiadi; Youtube – @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Otida