NBS: Over 82.9 Million Nigerians Living In Extreme Poverty

The National Bureau of Statistics on Monday shows that more than 82.9 million Nigerians are living in poverty according to the 2019 Poverty & Inequality in Nigeria report;  this shows 40.09% of the total population.

This revealed that 52.10% of rural dwellers are living in poverty while the poverty rate in urban centres is 18.04% 

The NBS,  last poverty data released was in 2010 when 60.9% of the population was living in poverty.

At the time, the country’s total population was 112.4 million translating to 68.4 million people living in poverty.

The NBS, together with the World Bank, used the Nigerian living standards survey (NLSS) to measure poverty and living standards between September of 2018 and October of 2019.

The NLSS measured poverty using the consumption expenditure rather than income.

“The consumption aggregate is the monetary value of food and non-food goods and services consumed by the household,” the report read.

“Thus, the consumption aggregate has the following component: expenditure on food from all sources, schooling and education expenditure, healthcare expenditure, housing expenditure, non-food expenditure like clothing and recreation.”

According to Brookings Institution in June 2008 it stated that Nigeria has overtaken India as the poverty capital of the world. It estimated that the number of Nigerians in extreme poverty increases by six people every minute.