A new report has confirmed that not less than 133 million Nigerians are living in poverty. This was contained in the latest Nigeria’s Multidimensional Poverty Index released in Abuja recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The new poverty figure represents about 63 per cent of the population. The survey was conducted between November 2021 and February 2022.
The recent flooding across the country, which devastated households and livelihoods and submerged farmlands in many states of the federation, might have increased the poverty index. The Statistician-General of the Federation and the Chief Executive Officer of NBS, Mr. Semiu Adeniran, who disclosed this in Abuja, said the high rate of poverty number was the outcome of a sample size of 56,610 people it conducted in 109 senatorial districts across the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In the report, the agency explained that the 133 million dimensionally poor Nigerians are largely due to lack of access to health, education, living standards, employment, housing, security, work and shock, among other challenges. Multidimensional Poverty Index offers a multiple variables form of poverty assessment and identifies indicators responsible for poverty.
The NBS sample survey, which cut across the six geopolitical zones of the country, is comprehensive and shockingly revealing, with the North-West posting the highest number of poor people at 45.5 million, North-East 20.5 million, North-Central 20.2 million, South-South 19.7 million, South-West 16.3 million, and South-East with 10.9million poor people.
Sokoto State leads the five poorest states with 90.5 per cent, followed by Bayelsa with 88.5 per cent poor people, Gombe 86.2 per cent, Jigawa 84.3 per cent and Plateau with 84 per cent. According to the report, Ondo State leads the least poor states with 27.2 per cent, Lagos 29.4 per cent, Abia 29.8 per cent, Edo 31 per cent, and Anambra with 32.1 per cent. The report also shows that 65 per cent of poor Nigerians, representing 86 million of the population live in the North, while 35 per cent or 47 million live in the Southern part of the country. About 72 per cent of the poor, according to the sample survey, live in the rural areas.
We believe the NBS report is an indication that the government has failed in alleviating poverty. This is in spite of huge investments in social intervention programmes. The NBS report also reflects the failure of governance as well as lack of commitment to the well-being of the citizens, especially the rural dwellers. The rising level of poverty in the country is lamentable. With abundant human and material resources, Nigerians should have no pact with poverty.
Worse still, the 133 million poor Nigerians recorded by the NBS report exceeded the World Bank›s projection for Nigeria in 2022. The bank had stated that poverty reduction stagnated since 2015, and projected that the number of poor Nigerians would hit 95.1million in 2022. According to the bank, the COVID-19 crisis is increasing Nigeria›s poverty rate, pushing more than additional five million people into poverty this year. With real per capita GDP growth being negative in all sectors since 2020, poverty is projected to have deepened for the poor, while the households that were above the poverty line prior to the COVID-19 crisis, are likely to fall into poverty. It is also disheartening that the rising poverty has defied government›s promise to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by the year 2030. President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2019 promised that the government would lift 100 million people out of extreme poverty with effect from 2020. Instead of reducing, Nigeria’s poverty index is increasing. In 2018, Nigeria overtook India as poverty capital of the world, with 87 million poor. By 2021, this figure had increased to 95 million.
India had lifted up to 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016. China had also lifted 750 million people out of poverty within 20 years. Sadly, Nigeria›s plan to reduce poverty has not worked. In June 2021, President Buhari inaugurated the National Steering Committee on Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy. Nothing much has been heard since then. In the same vein, the National Social Investment Programme has not been effectively implemented. That is why poverty, insecurity, inflation and unemployment are increasing at a frightening pace.
The government must come up with new measures to address the nation’s rising poverty. There is need for sustainable investment in human capital development. Let government prioritise education, youth empowerment, and welfare of the citizens. We enjoin all tiers of government to work in concert to reduce the growing poverty.