Abuja – The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF),Mr Babachir Lawal, said on Thursday that the Federal Government would continue to create conducive environment for investment in youths in the country.

Lawal said this at the Roundtable discussion on “Investment in teenage girls’’ to commemorate the World Population Day in Abuja.

SGF Engr Babachir David Lawal

The World Population Day is usually marked worldwide, on July 11 of every year.
He said that the federal government remains committed to the creation of enabling environment on investment in the education, health and socio-economic development of the youth.

Lawal said that the government is working with development partners and private sector in ensuring that every young person in the society fulfils his or her potentials.

He said this would enable the person contribute maximally to the development of the country.
The SGF, however, noted that access to education and healthcare for teenage girls in many parts of the country was limited by socio-cultural factors.

According to him, this has tremendously exposed them to illiteracy and several health challenges.
“Any investment in teenage girls today is an investment in the future of Nigeria.
“The 2006 data shows that literacy was higher among teenage boys age 10-9 at 77.1 per cent compared to teenage girls of 73.3 per cent.

“The 2013 National Demography and Health Survey data indicates that 23 per cent of adolescent girls aged 15-19 years have begun childbearing with disparity between rural areas of 32 per cent as against the urban areas with 10 per cent.
“Indication from the North East is that some teenage girls have been used as tools of mass killings by insurgents due to their unequal vulnerability.

“Therefore, I explore this medium to call on all stakeholders to invest more on teenage girls to protect their health and enable them to receive quality education in order to expand their economic opportunities,’’ Lawal said.

Prof. Ladipo Oladipo, President, Association of Reproductive Family and Reproductive Health (ARFH), however noted that political commitment was required to develop capacity of teenage girls.

He said this was because the realisation of teenage girls’ potentials and contribution to the development of the nation required such political commitment and enactment of laws banning early marriage for them.
Oladipo described the youths of a nation as the trustees of posterity.

He said that “investment in their health and education is the recipe for sustaining economic growth and improvement in the quality of our life.

“To ensure the realisation of future of the youth we will require and demand for top level political commitment, enact a policy banning teenage early marriage and provide remarkable funding by the government to realise this dream and our vision for the future generation’’.