Presidency debunks World Bank’s claim that 100m Nigerians are living in destitution

The Nigerian presidency has refuted a claim by the World Bank Country Director, Marie-Franciose Nelly, that 100 million Nigerians lived in destitution or extreme poverty.
A statement from Dr Nwanze Okidegbe, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Nigerian President, in Abuja on Sunday described Nelly’s claim as `false’.
Okidegbe said the claim contradicted the position of Makhtar Diop, the bank’s Vice President for Africa, during his visit to Nigeria in May.
“In May 2013, Diop declared that poverty had fallen under this administration from 48 per cent to 46 per cent.
“Given our current population of about 170 million people, the country director’s imagery of 100 million Nigerian destitutes seems to be based on a much higher poverty rate than that of her boss.
“The question that arises from this absurdity therefore is: Who is right?
“Secondly, according to the World Bank, to live in extreme poverty is to live on less than 1.25 dollars per day, including the cost of accommodation, clothing, feeding and other incidentals,’’ he said.
He said the amount translated to N200 per day or N6,000 per month.
“On feeding alone, a loaf of bread costs more than N200 in many parts of Nigeria while a plate of food, even from a road-side food vendor, costs about the same amount,’’ he said.
Okidegbe said the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan had undertaken some reform programmes in key sectors of the economy like agriculture to create jobs and reduce poverty.
“Indeed, Nigeria was recently honoured for meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing people living in absolute hunger by half, well ahead of the 2015 target set by the United Nations.
“On the average, about 20 per cent of the Subsidy Re-investment Programme is allocated exclusively to protecting the poor through different types of social safety nets.
“One important area of success is the Conditional Grant Scheme with total conditional cash transfer to almost 40,000 households and recruitment of over 2,000 new health workers working on improving maternal and child health,’’ he said.
The economic adviser said that instead of peddling inaccurate poverty numbers, the World Bank should focus on designing programmes and interventions to support the efforts of the government to accelerate poverty reduction in Nigeria.
Nelly made the claim in Enugu, southeast Nigeria, on Nov. 12 during the bank’s country programme, Portfolio Review.

- The Citizen

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