NEW data from the World Poverty Clock on Tuesday revealed that over 70 million Nigerians are currently living in extreme poverty.
The figure represents about 33 per cent of the nation’s estimated population put at 215,353,968. It accounts for less than 50 per cent of the entire population figure.
The exact statistics of those living in extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock was pegged at 70,677, 758 at a poverty threshold of $1.90.
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The World Poverty Clock is an initiative of the World Data Lab. It provides real-time projections on income levels and pictorial descriptions of how every individual across the globe is escaping from extreme poverty through deliberate policies of respective nations across the world.
It indirectly helps monitor the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations set at 2030.
The situation of being in extreme poverty is often considered the most severe type of poverty. It is also described as abject poverty, deep poverty, absolute poverty, and in some cases penury.
Extreme poverty, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Inclusion is “a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, and information.
“It depends not only on income but also on access to services.”
The World Bank uses a similar benchmark of $1.90 per day per person to measure people who are living on the global extreme poverty line.
Some of the indices also include access to clean water and good health care system, which Nigeria lack.
For instance, in November 2021, the country was ranked first globally in open defecation.
Earlier, in September same year, the Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited disclosed how Nigeria had maintained its position as the poverty capital of the world.
Some of the challenges confronting the country, according to several experts, include inflation, unemployment, insecurity, corruption, infrastructure deficit etc.
Meanwhile, the new statistics showed that 53 per cent of the people, reflecting 61,259,105 Nigerians, are resident in the rural areas while the remaining nine per cent, or 9,418,653, live in the urban areas.
The figure is mutually shared between both genders at 35,804,315 males and 34,873,443 for the females.
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at [email protected]. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin