Over 87m Nigerians live in poverty, what FG must do

The Chairman of O-Analytics Research and Development Initiative (ORADI), a private sector support and knowledge house for the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria, Professor Ebere Onwudiwe, has disclosed that over 87 million Nigerians are living in abject poverty.

Prof. Onwudiwe said this during a press briefing tagged: “National Conversation on Poverty and Gender Equality” anchored by ORADI in Abuja.

He stated that findings according to its quarterly assessment in the country showed that, “Instead of being on course to attain the zero poverty goals, poverty is rising in the country,” adding that despite the measures taken by the Nigerian government to reduce poverty, a large proportion of Nigerians still lived below the international poverty line.

“We use a disaggregated multidimensional poverty analysis method to show that compared to the South, poverty is more concentrated among households in the northern part of Nigeria.”

While noting that Nigeria had overtaken India as the world’s poverty capital, it (Nigeria) housed the largest number of extremely poor people in the world since 2018.

Prof. Onwudinwe said, “The Buhari administration’s primary approach to reducing poverty is the Social Investment Programme (SIP) which aims or is targeted at lifting many Nigerians from poverty and creating opportunities for people to fend for themselves.