Shaping Tomorrow: Nigeria’s Path to Sustainable Families and Prosperity, by Rahma Olamide Oladosu

Nigeria stands at a defining moment in its history, where the energy of a young and vibrant population meets the realities of limited resources and rapid change. With more than 230 million citizens and births outpacing infrastructure, the country’s future hinges on how wisely it balances growth with opportunity. The challenge is not merely about numbers; it is about ensuring that every child born has access to quality education, healthcare, and meaningful work. By embracing thoughtful, right-based policies that make smaller families the natural and empowered choice, Nigeria can transform its demographic strength into lasting prosperity.

Yet the current pace of growth already strains the nation’s capacity to provide these opportunities. Fertility rates remain among the highest in the world, and the majority of Nigerians are under 15, creating a heavy dependency burden. Schools and health facilities struggle to keep up, housing shortages deepen, and job creation lags behind the swelling labour force. Without action, pressures on food supplies, urban infrastructure and the environment will intensify, undermining economic stability and widening poverty.

Addressing population growth is therefore an urgent economic and social priority. The federal government, civil society and international partners must work together to steer demographic trends toward sustainability through voluntary, right-based policies that empower Nigerians to choose smaller families, ideally no more than three children. A promising starting point is the partnership between the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and UK-based Population Matters, which has already initiated a national “Population Conversation” to bring communities, leaders and policymakers into constructive dialogue. This collaboration can serve as the backbone of a nationwide strategy anchored in informed choice rather than coercion.

Government policy should focus first on universal access to quality family-planning services, ensuring that safe contraceptives of all types are available in public clinics, community pharmacies and mobile outreach centres. Community health workers must be trained to offer respectful counselling and to integrate family planning with maternal and child health services. At the same time, massive investment in girls’ education and women’s economic empowerment is essential. Keeping girls in school through secondary level, providing scholarships and safe transport, and expanding skills and microfinance programmes for women all correlate strongly with smaller desired family sizes and higher household incomes.

Economic and social incentives can reinforce these efforts. Instead of penalties, progressive tax credits, school-fee subsidies and conditional cash transfers that become more generous for families with three or fewer children can nudge behaviour while supporting child welfare. Public information campaigns, developed with traditional and religious leaders and broadcast through radio, television and social media, can dispel myths about contraception and highlight the health and economic benefits of smaller families. Strengthening health systems so that mothers and children survive and thrive reduces the perceived need for many births “just in case.” Parallel investments in youth employment, vocational training and entrepreneurship will give young Nigerians confidence in their futures and reduce the economic motive to have large families as a form of old-age security.

To coordinate these efforts, Nigeria could establish a permanent Population Conversation Platform led by CISLAC in partnership with Population Matters, with a national secretariat in the Federal Capital Territory and coordinators for each of the six geopolitical zones. This structure would oversee public engagement, data collection, media outreach and service roll-out, while an advisory group of demographers, economists, religious scholars and youth representatives provides evidence and cultural sensitivity. Transparent targets such as reductions in total fertility rate, increases in contraceptive prevalence, declines in adolescent pregnancy and rises in female secondary-school completion would guide progress and allow annual public reporting to the National Assembly.

Encouraging smaller families is not about outside imposition but about expanding choices that improve lives. By empowering women, educating girls, creating jobs and ensuring access to voluntary family planning, Nigeria can naturally move toward a norm of three children or fewer per household. This approach will ease pressure on schools, clinics and food systems, foster economic growth, and secure a healthier, more sustainable future for the nation.