Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday said that about 82.9million or 40 percent of Nigeria’s estimated 200 million Nigerians, are living in extreme poverty and are therefore poor. This means that four out of 10 Nigerians have real per capita expenditures below N137,430 per year.
According to NBS 2019 survey,–”Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS),” conducted over 82.9 million of the estimated 200 million Nigerians are considered poor by national standards.
The NBS Poverty headcount rate by states include: Abia, 30.67; Adamawa, 75.41; Akwa Ibom 26.82; Anambra, 14.78; Bauchi, 61.54; Bayelsa, 22.61; Benue, 32.90; Borno, (inclusive because of insurgency)–; Cross River, 36.29; Delta, 6.02; Ebonyi, 79.76; Edo 11.99; Ekiti 28.04; Enugu 58.13, Imo 28.86; Jigawa, 87.02; Kaduna, 43.48; Kebbi, 50.17; Kogi 28.51; Kwara, 20.35; Lagos 4.50; Nasarawa 57.30; Niger 66.11; Ogun 9.32; Osun 8.52; Plateau 55.05; Sokoto 87.73; Taraba 87.72; Yobe 72.34; Zamfara 73.98 and FCT, 38.66.
While Lagos according to the table has the least poverty rate, 4.16 per cent, Sokoto leads with the highest poverty rate of 87.73.
“It is important to note that this number excludes households from Borno. That sample was a representative of the whole state since only households from ‘accessible’ (safe to visit areas only) were interviewed. Thus the Borno sample was considered non-random and non-representative” the document, said.
The national poverty line is based on a welfare aggregate—regionally adjusted per capita in the households where the value of per capita total consumption expenditure is below or equal to consumption expenditures across all households. As such, it is possible to apply the national poverty line to the consumption aggregate to estimate the poverty and inequality indicators across all states.
“Three indicators are of particular interest and policy use: poverty headcount ratio, the poverty line. Poverty gap measures the depth of poverty. In other words, the distinction could be made between those who are just a little below the poverty line and those who are significantly below the line.
The poverty gap index measures the extent to which a person falls below the poverty gap and Gini index. The headcount ratio defines the proportion of population that is living from near 0, which would indicate perfect equality and 100 -perfect inequality.
This comes as the World Bank had earlier forecasted that the effect of coronavirus pandemic would push about 49 million people into extreme poverty.
With the forecasts, the bank said, global poverty—the share of the world’s population living on less than $1.90 per day—is projected to increase from 8.2 per cent in 2019 to 8.6 per cent in 2020, or from 632 million people to 665 million people.
“Compare this with the projected decline from 8.1 per cent to 7.8 per cent over the same period using the previous World Economic Outlook forecasts.
The slight change from 8.2 per cent to 8.1 per cent for 2019 happens because the revised growth forecasts also changed for non-COVID reasons for some countries.
Taking this into account, it means that COVID-19 is driving a change in our 2020 estimate of the global poverty rate of 0.7 percentage points — (8.6 per cent-8.2 per cent)-(7.8 per cent-8.1 per cent). Another way to put this is that the estimates suggest that COVID-19 will push 49 million people into extreme poverty in 2020” the world apex bank, said.