By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Bauchi State would soon join the league of other Nigerian States in institutionalizing Demographic Dividend (DD) that is being championed by the United Nations Fund for Population Activity (UNFPA).
Towards realizing that goal, the Bauchi State Ministry of Budget and Planning (MoBP) in collaboration with UNFPA have conducted a high level capacity building training for Directors in some selected MDAs of the State.
The Two Days training was focused on the Concept of Demographic Dividend (DD) and its importance in harnessing growth potentials at both National and Sub-National level.
The concept was succinctly highlighted by the UNFPA Assistant Representative, Professor Dashe Dasagot in one of his presentations saying that, it is as an accelerated economic growth that that can be achieved as the population age structure changes.
Professor Dashe, who also doubles as resource person during the training posited that a sure pathway to attaining DD is to reduce mortality in children and decline in fertility rate. According to the him, the country don’t have enough resources for cater for its citizens.
In another presentation, the resource person said that one of the main contributions of demographic change is a potential massive growth in GPD, since according him , “the fraction of breadwinners rise during such phase, which translate into an increase in per capata income in the economy”.
The UNFPA Assistance Representative said that there can be no creation of dividend if there is no decline in fertility stressing that, “no country can be able to create DD without fall in birth rates”.
Earlier before the commencement of the training, permanent secretary of Bauchi State Ministry of Health Ali Babayo Gamawa commended UNFPA for providing technical support to Bauchi State and also deeming it fit to support in the conduct of the training.
He said that Bauchi State Government has created enabling environment for the implementation of meaningful development in line with the Goals of sustainable development.
He urged the high caliber participants to pay attention and contribute to the discussions that would ensure in the course of the training.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Budget and Planning, Idris Sale Giade said that the training was a continuation of an ongoing partnership between the State Government, through the ministry, and UNFPA aimed at entrenching demographic dividend as another catalyst for development in the State.
Giade further charged participants to cascade the training to their subordinates in their respective MDAs.
Our correspondent reports that presentations made during the training elicited a robust and engaging contributions from participants.