Nigeria says 130 million people, more than 60% of its population, are mired in poverty

The report reflects the seriousness of the situation in the north and adds that more than half of the poor are children

November 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Nigerian authorities have indicated that six out of ten citizens are in a situation of poverty, which is equivalent to more than 130 million people, amid the deepening humanitarian and security crisis in the country, the most populous on the continent. African.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has published a report stating that 133 million people, 63 percent of the population, are “multidimensionally poor”, a study that has included the participation of various organizations, including the Program United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The body has noted that more than two thirds of minors – 67.5 percent – are also “multidimensionally poor”, before emphasizing that 51 percent of the total poor in Nigeria are children.

The document states that the Multidimensional Poverty Index is 0.257, which “indicates that poor people in Nigeria experience a quarter of all possible deprivations”, while detailing that the northern part of the country is the most affected by this crisis.

Thus, it specifies that 65 percent of the total, 86 million people, live in the north, while the remaining 35 percent, 47 million people, live in the south. “Poverty levels between states vary significantly, with the incidence of multidimensional poverty ranging from 27 percent in Ondo to 91 percent in Sokoto,” she specified.

The NBS has noted that “more than half of Nigeria’s population is poor and cooks with dung, wood or coal, instead of cleaner energy.” “There are great apparent deprivations at the national level in hygiene, sanitation, food security and housing,” she lamented.

“In general, the incidence of economic poverty is lower than the incidence of multidimensional poverty in most states,” he said, before pointing out that “40.1 percent of the population is poor, according to the 2018/2019 national poverty line”.

Along these lines, he stressed that “multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72 percent of the population is poor, compared to 42 percent in urban areas,” according to the document published by the Nigerian agency. through its website.

The report also points out that “the greatest deprivations are found in the indicator of child participation, according to which more than half of poor children lack crucial intellectual stimuli for early childhood development.”

“Child poverty is prevalent in rural areas, with almost 90 percent of children in these areas experiencing poverty,” said the NBS, which has detailed that these figures are also higher in the northeast and northwest of the country, being lower in the southeast and southwest.

In these cases the figures in the northwest and northeast show that 90 percent of children are poor, while in the southeast and southwest they drop to 74 percent and 65.1 percent, respectively. The incidence of child multidimensional poverty is above 50 percent in all states and is over 95 percent in Bayelsa, Sokoto, Gombe and Kebbi.

Nigeria is plunged into a serious humanitarian crisis fueled by insecurity, especially in the northeast and other parts of the north of the country, where jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) operate, as well as criminal groups and armed gangs. .

For years these groups have taken advantage of the complaints from the northern population about discrimination by the central government to swell their ranks and maintain a discourse delegitimizing the authorities, who have responded with numerous security campaigns and promises to improve the humanitarian situation in these areas.