NIGERIA’S POVERTY LEVEL RISES, HITS 71.5% SOKOTO AND NIGER TOP LIST OF POOREST STATES
POVERTY in Nigeria is rising with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day despite strong growth.
The percentage of Nigerians living in absolute poverty — those who can afford only the bare essentials of food, shelter and clothing — rose to 60.9 per cent in 2010, compared with 54.7 per cent in 2004, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
Although Nigeria's economy is projected to continue growing, poverty is likely to get worse as the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen.
"It remains a paradox ... that despite the fact that the Nigerian economy is growing, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year," Statistician General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale, told reporters at a press conference in Abuja.
“NBS estimates that this trend may have increased further in 2011 if the potential positive impacts of several anti-poverty and employment generation intervention programmes are not taken into account,"
The data showed that the North-East and North-West, where the Boko Haram sect originated, are the poorest regions in Nigeria. The South-West, which includes the thriving commercial hub Lagos, had the lowest levels of poverty.
Meanwhile, Sokoto and Niger states topped the list of poorest states in Nigeria as poverty rate hit 71.5 per cent.
The North-West and North-East geopolitical zones recorded the highest poverty rate in Nigeria with 77.7 per cent and 76.3 per cent respectively, while Sokoto and Niger topped the list of the poorest states.
Poverty rate in Nigeria might have risen to 71.5 per cent, 61.9 per cent, and 62.8 per cent using the relative, absolute and dollar-per-day measures respectively.
However, “this will become clearer once the 2011 Annual Socio-Economic Survey is completed later in the year. Thus, using the relative, absolute and dollar-per-day poverty measures, NBS estimates that poverty may have further risen slightly to about 71.5 per cent, 61.9 per cent and 62.8 per cent respectively in 2011.”
Between 2004 and 2010, Nigeria’s poverty rate had moved from 54.4 per cent to 69 per cent involving 112,518,507 Nigerians, adding that although the country’s Gross Domestic Growth (GDP) had grown since then, it had little impact on the poverty situation.
Giving the breakdown, while the North-West and the North-East geopolitical zones had the highest poor, the South-West recorded the lowest with 59 per cent. Whereas Sokoto tops the list of poor states with 86.4 per cent, Niger followed with 43.6 per cent in the year under review.
Applying the United Nations’ definition of a poor person in dollar terms, the Statistician-General disclosed that 51.6 per cent of Nigerians were living below US$1 per day in 2004 but this increased to 61.2 per cent in 2010.
“Although the World Bank standard now is US$1.25 per day, the old reference of US$1 per day was the standard used in Nigeria at the time that the survey was concluded,”