Population to hit 54 million by 2025

UGANDA'S population will hit 54 million by 2025 at the current birth rate, the director of the Population Secretariat, Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, said yesterday. Musinguzi also told the ongoing donors' consultative meeting that Uganda's women were among the most fertile in Africa, each bearing an average of 6.9 children compared to 4.7 children for Kenyan women and four for Zimbabwe. Musinguzi warned of adverse effects on social and economic development. At the current fertility rate, Musinguzi said the number of primary school children would soar from the current 6.5 million to 12.8 million while cumulative difference in health expenditures would amount to over US$2b by 2025. The annual job requirement, he said, would be 713,000 by the same period or 536,000 if fertility were controlled. If the economic growth remained at 7% per annum, Musinguzi said the per capita income would increase from the present US$260 (sh468,000) to US$841 (sh1.5m) with birth control or just US$672 (sh1.2m) without birth control. He also said rapid population growth would wipe out Uganda's forest stocks and increase soil degradation and land fragmentation. Musinguzi regretted that there was a large unmet need for family planning. Ends