By Abiola Olawale
The World Bank has projected that Nigeria’s population will surge by approximately 130 million people by 2050, ballooning to around 350 million citizens.
This projection was highlighted during the 2025 World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga delivered the forecast at the plenary session in Washington, D.C., emphasizing that the coming decades represent a “defining moment” for developing nations like Nigeria.
He noted that the pace of population growth on the continent is staggering, with Africa expected to be home to one in four people in the world by 2050.
Banga also projected that Zambia will add about 700,000 people every year, while Mozambique’s population will double within the same period.
Banga said: “We are living through one of the great demographic shifts in human history. By 2050, more than 85 percent of the world’s population will live in countries we call ‘developing’ today.” He warned that in just the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people will enter the global workforce, competing for only about 400 million available jobs, a situation he described as a widening gap with far-reaching implications.
“Four young people will step into the global workforce every second over the next 10 years. So in the time it takes to deliver these remarks, tens of thousands will cross that threshold, full of ambition, impatient for opportunity.”
The World Bank President emphasised that these young people, with their energy and ideas, will define the next century. He stressed that with the right investments focused not on need but on opportunity, the world can unlock a powerful engine of global growth.
“This is why jobs must be at the centre of any development, economic, or national security strategy,” he said, adding that a job represents more than a paycheck; it embodies purpose, dignity, and stability. “It’s the anchor that holds families steady and the glue that keeps societies together. It is the straightest line to stability and the hardest progress to reverse once achieved,” he added.
Banga explained that the World Bank Group has restructured its operations to better address this reality, refocusing its approach to development around job creation. He said the institution has moved with greater speed, simplicity, and substance over the past two years.
