63% of Nigerians are poor, says NBS report

A new report by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown that 63 per cent of Nigerians are poor.

The report titled ‘The National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey results for 2022’ was launched in Abuja on Thursday.

It also showed that 67.5 per cent of children within the ages of 0-17 years are poor.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented at the launch by Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, his Chief of Staff, said, ”This multidimensional way of understanding poverty has been helpful in highlighting beyond monetary income based poverty measurements.

“The stark reality of poverty in each state’s and across the 909 senatorial district.

“According to the report, the incidence of monetary poverty is lower than the incidence of multidimensional poverty across most states where 40.1 percent are poor according to the 2018/2019 National Poverty Line.

“But 63 per cent, a big jump, are multidimensionally poor according to the 2022 MP1 report.

“Furthermore, this report shows that multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas where 72 per cent are poor compared to 42 per cent of people in the urban area.

“So that we see that poverty at the phase of rural origin, nature and also as we soon see subsequently the phase of women. Globally, people that are very vulnerable to poverty are very often women and children.

“It is therefore commendable to see that this report also include child poverty numbers. Children are a strategic population of concern.”

Buhari reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to eradicating poverty in line with the Sustainable Development Goal.

He said, “I reaffirm our commitment to the first goal of SDG which is eradicating poverty in all its dimensions.

“This government recognizes the importance of the data and the need to deploy it in sharing your story to a broad spectrum of stakeholders both domestically and internationally.

“It is my hope that with the report being launched today, every stakeholder will rise to the challenge. Providing needed political leadership, strategic vision and creative hard work to move the needle towards eradicating extreme poverty in Nigeria.”