63% of Nigerians living in poverty 

The federal government of Nigeria has announced that the number of people living in poverty in Nigeria is as high as 63% of the country’s population. 

Is this a new report? 

This was disclosed on Thursday, during Nigeria’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey, where President Muhammadu Buhari was represented by his chief of staff Prof. Ibrahim Gambari. According to a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, the figure represents 63% of Nigeria’s population living in poverty (OPHI). 

How did they arrive at the data? 

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in Nigeria was calculated using five components of health, living standard, education, security, and unemployment. “In general, the incidence of monetary poverty is lower than the incidence of multidimensional poverty across most states. In Nigeria, 40.1% of people are poor according to the 2018/19 national monetary poverty line, and 63% are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI 2022”, the report said. 

What’s the government’s plan to fix this?

In his speech, Buhari represented by his Chief of Staff said the index was chosen because it offers a means of identifying poverty and addressing it through governmental policies. According to the survey, which was conducted between November 2021 and February 2022 and sampled more than 56,000 households across the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, 65% of the poor (86 million people) live in the North, while 35 (47 million people) do so in the South. According to the report, Sokoto State has the highest rate of poverty among the states (91%), while Ondo has the lowest rate (27%).