As part of a short series on demography, Daily Development talks today to Clifford Odimegwu of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, an expert on demography and population studies. According to the United Nations, Africa’s population in 2013 was 1.1 billion people, but is expected to more than double to 2.4 billion by 2050 and quadruple to 4.1 billion by 2100. And unlike many other parts of the word, fertility rates are rising in Africa. However, despite (or because of) this huge growth in the population, the poverty rate in sub-Saharan Africa is decreasing only slowly, falling by only 8 percentage points between 1990 and 2005, and almost half the population live on less than US$ 1.25 a day.

So, can this large projected increase in Africa’s population be harnessed for good? Professor Odimegwu explains that he thinks that an empowered growing African population can help to tackle some of Africa’s development issues. 

Population growth can be used for good. It just needs a creative leadership to invest in the human resources. It can even be a chance to tackle the problem of poverty, but we must adopt a holistic approach. 

Some would recommend a reduction in population growth, but personally I don’t think that is an issue. If fertility reduction is an issue, why is it that Western countries that have experienced fertility transition are now turning back to wanting an increase in fertility? Denmark is encouraging its men and women to make more babies, as is France, and China is reversing its one-child policy. These go to show that wholesale emphasis on fertility reduction can backfire. 

For Africa, instead of getting into the problems being experienced by developed countries, our African leaders should find a way of empowering the growing population economically and socially, but first we need to deal with corruption and bad leadership. The cost of corruption and bad leadership, inefficiencies in public services, cronyism, tribalism, etc., on Africa’s development far outweigh the so-called negative impact of population growth on development.

If we have good leadership, our large population can be a positive. I do not subscribe to the idea that Africa's underdevelopment is because of our huge population. 

Overall, I subscribe to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action. Let governments focus on allowing people free choices; the rest will take care of itself.