82.9 Million Nigerians Lived Below Its Poverty Line, National Bureau of Statistics Insists

By Our Correspondent

Aside the derogatory report that Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reaffirmed the report with a verdict that 40.1 per cent of the country’s population live in poverty. The NBS, in its executive summary of the 2019 poverty and inequality report, which it released on Monday May 4, the same day the federal government partially lifted the lockdown over the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, said over 82.9 million Nigerians lived below its poverty line of N137,430 per year.

The NBS said between September 2018 and October 2019, it conducted the latest round of the Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) after 10 years. The data is the official survey, which is used as the basis for measuring poverty and living standards. The NBS said in the report that, “In Nigeria 40.1 per cent of the total population were classified as poor. In other words, on average, four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capita expenditures below N137,430 per year.

“This translates to over 82.9 million Nigerians who are considered poor by national standards. It is important to note that this number excludes the state of Borno.” It said while the NLSS 2018-19 included households from Borno State, that sample was not representative of the whole state since only households from “accessible” and, (safe-to visit) areas were interviewed. Therefore, the Borno sample, according to the agency is considered non-random and non-representative as far as the report id concerned.

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