“It’s difficult, sometimes they believe that contraception will make them infertile, or the parents categorically reject it,” she said.
Nigerian women have an average of 5.53 children, according to the World Bank, but the rate fluctuates greatly between major cities like Lagos and rural areas, where it reaches up to eight children per woman.
Mabingue Ngom, the UN Population Fund’s regional director for West Africa, said the situation in northern Nigeria was “urgent”.
“If we do nothing, we are going to face major problems,” Ngom said.
“Of the 20 million young Africans who enter the job market every year, only two to three million find work.”
“That’s what feeds into conflicts and terrorism,” he added, referring to the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency that emerged from northern Nigeria, an area which, along with neighbouring Niger, has the world’s highest fertility rates.
Nigeria is fairly small compared to the world’s other highly populous nations — at 923,000 square kilometres it’s a 10th the size of the United States — and the fight for space is already causing conflict.
In the fertile centre of the West African country, clashes between farmers and herders over access to land and water have left several thousand dead last year.
Efforts to encourage families to have fewer children have struggled in a country lacking a social safety net.
The idea that having more children means elderly parents will more likely be taken care of after retirement remains deeply rooted in Nigerian society.
But some analysts say large population growth could be an opportunity for the country, as foreign investors eye a rapidly expanding market.
Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital, said population growth “should become a dividend for the next 20 years in Nigeria”.
He said Nigeria’s priority should be to develop “a high level of adult literacy with a steady supply of electricity, especially in large cities.”
“It is the best way for young people to get better paid jobs and sustain their families.”
Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo seemed to agree at an economic forum last year.
