133 million (63%) Nigerians live in Poverty– NBS

 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  reported that 133 million ( 63 per cent) , which is two  out of three Nigerians are living in poverty.  “Nigerians are suffering from multidimensional poverty, with children constituting more than half of poor people in the country.”

National Bureau of Statistics report stated: “Multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of people are poor, compared to 42% of people in urban areas. 

“Approximately 70% of Nigeria’s population live in rural areas, yet these areas are home to 80% of poor people; their intensity of poverty is also higher, at 42% in rural areas compared to 37% in urban areas.

 “Two-thirds (67.5%) of children aged 0–17 are poor according to the National MPI, and half (51%) of all poor people are children.” 

“The Multidimensional Poverty Index offers a multivariate form of poverty assessment, identifying deprivations across health, education, living standards, work and shocks. Similarly, the report said the poorest States are Sokoto, Bayelsa, Jigawa, Kebbi, Gombe and Yobe, but we could not say for sure which of these is the poorest, because their confidence intervals overlap.”

This pervasive poverty rears its ugly head mostly on the children especially in the homes where mothers are the bread winners of the family.  The price of foods are rising and becoming out of the reach of these Nigerians.  The latest inflation rate stood at 21.08 percent while that of food inflation rate is 23.72 percent. That is not a good news by any imagination and coupled with poor food security and  flooding the country is on wrong path.

“ The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Food inflation also surged to 23.72% in the review month from 23.34% in the previous month, while the core inflation rate rose to 17.76% from 17.6%.

On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate moderated to 1.24% compared to 1.36% recorded in the previous month, but higher than the 0.98% recorded in the corresponding period of 2021. The increase in the composite index was due to increases in the core and food inflation rate in the period under review.”