By Ebi Kesiena
The President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, has warned that without deliberate and coordinated global action, the world’s growing youth population could become a source of instability rather than a driver of progress.
He projected that Nigeria’s population may increase by about 130 million by 2050.
Banga gave the warning recently noting that Africa’s explosive population growth presents both an unprecedented opportunity and a looming risk.
He cautioned that failure to create economic opportunities could turn youthful optimism into frustration, fuelling unrest, insecurity, and mass migration with far-reaching consequences for every region and economy.
According to him, with investments focused on opportunity rather than need, Africa’s young population could become a powerful engine for sustainable growth and innovation in the decades ahead.
Banga described the coming decades as “one of the great demographic shifts in human history,” noting that by 2050, more than 85 per cent of the world’s population will live in countries currently considered developing.
He warned that over the next 10 to 15 years, about 1.2 billion young people will enter the global workforce, competing for only 400 million available jobs, leaving a gap of 800 million unemployed or underemployed youths worldwide.
“Reconstruction is an essential part of our mandate. A service we stand ready to deliver whenever and wherever it’s needed and to the best of our ability. At the same time, as an institution of development, we are equally committed to conflict prevention.
“Alongside rebuilding what has been lost, we must also focus on creating the conditions for opportunity and stability. That is what motivates our actions and decisions today. We are living through one of the great demographic shifts in human history. By 2050, more than 85 per cent of the world’s population will live in countries we call ‘developing’ today.
“In just the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people will enter the workforce, vying for roughly 400 million jobs. That leaves a very large gap. Let me express that urgency another way: Four young people will step into the global workforce every second over the next ten years.”
He added that in the time it took to deliver the remarks, tens of thousands would cross that threshold, full of ambition and impatient for opportunity.
Banga said the pace of population growth was most staggering in Africa, which will be home to one in four people by 2050.
Meanwhile, data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that youth unemployment stood at over 33 per cent in 2024, while millions remain underemployed or outside the formal labour force.
