The sensitive issue of poverty continues to occupy the minds of concerned Nigerians. It isn’t difficult to detect, recognize, or describe. Yet, in the most literal sense, it can be characterized as a situation in which an individual’s or family’s resources are insufficient to provide a socially acceptable standard of living.
Poverty exists in every country on the planet, though the rate varies from one to another. This means that poverty isn’t limited to Nigeria and other emerging nations. It’s a disease that’s afflicting both developed and emerging countries.
According to the World Vision Report, over 10% of people in the United States are impoverished as of 2019. According to The World Bank, South Sudan has an 82.3 percent poverty rate, Burundi has a 64.9 percent poverty rate, and the Central African Republic has a 62 percent poverty rate.
It should be remembered that Nigeria has experienced several social and financial upheavals since its independence in 1960, ranging from post-colonial trauma, economic crisis, inflation, civil instability, and population displacements to deterioration of publicly provided services.
Natural disasters, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, exacerbated the country’s already deepening poverty.
Nigeria, like other countries, was hit by many waves of COVID-19, which disrupted a variety of economic activity.
This has great implications not only on health but also on economic and social aspects of the nation, resulting in increased food insecurity and a rise in the country’s poverty rate.
As a result, Nigeria’s poverty rate has skyrocketed. Despite the country’s enormous natural resources, this is the case.
Despite impressive economic growth and stabilisation witnessed in the decades preceding 2016, with an annual economic growth rate of 12.8 percent in 1990, 7.61 percent in 1996, 10.35 percent in 2003, 7.84 percent in 2010, and 6.31 percent in 2014, though 2016 growth rate was -1.62 percent accompanied by weak recovery of 0.8 percent growth rate in 2017. Nigeria was still classified as one of the world’s poorest countries, with a GDP per capita of $2,175.67 in 2016, which is low compared with even other developing countries.
Although Nigeria’s GDP increased by 3.98 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2021, marking the country’s sixth consecutive quarter of growth, despite the country’s continued recovery from the pandemic crisis that wreaked havoc on the country’s oil sector.
However, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2019 report showed that 40.1 percent of the population was impoverished. In other words, 4 out of 10 Nigerians have real per capita spending of less than N137,430 each year. This equates to roughly 82.9 million Nigerians living in poverty, according to national measures. It is worth noting that this figure does not include Borno State.
By 2022, projections show a rise in the number of people living in extreme poverty to nearly 90 million. This suggests that roughly half of her population still wallows in abysmal poverty.
Furthermore, Nigeria is one of the few African countries that has seen its inflation rate rise as income has decreased, making it the seventh-highest inflation rate in the continent. The “inflation shock” pushed roughly 8 million Nigerians into poverty between 2020 and 2021.
Nigeria’s annual inflation rate increased to 15.7 percent in February 2022, up from 15.6 percent the previous month. Food has also been under a lot of inflationary pressure (17.1 percent ). As a result, Nigeria has been unable to maintain the fall in prices seen after four years of high inflation in November 2021.
Due to a lack of social protection, the poor and vulnerable are disadvantaged. Most Nigerians live below the national poverty line of $1.25 per day. Many households have had to adapt their lifestyles to deal with decreasing incomes by lowering their food consumption. These negative welfare impacts have been exacerbated by high inflation.
Furthermore, households in Nigeria are not only poor; they also face significant disparities in assets (such as education and health), control over public resources, and access to essential services, as well as widespread insecurity.
The degree of poverty is primarily determined by average income and income disparity. Poverty is reduced when average income rises, while it is increased when inequality increases.
As a result, changes in poverty have two components: the growth component, which is related to a change in mean income, and the other is the inequality component, which is associated with a change in inequality.
The magnitude of these two components determines the relative sensitivity of poverty reduction to growth and inequality. Thus, inequality has a substantial impact on poverty. Nigerians experience inequality in income, health, education, access to land or property, and employment, among others.
The Gini coefficient, used to capture income inequality, which stood at 38.68 percent in 1986, rose to 44.95 percent in 1992, worsened to 46.50 percent in 1996, and stood at 48.83 percent in 2010, shows that the gap between the haves and have-nots has continued to widen. In recent years, the Gini coefficient has risen above 52 percent.
Furthermore, the country’s unemployment rate has increased. Unemployment and underemployment were 33.3 percent and 22.8 percent, respectively, according to the NBS report. In addition, 42.5 percent of young people were unemployed, while 21% were underemployed.
Poverty continues to rise daily in a country blessed with immense human and natural resources, as millions of people are pushed below the poverty line as a result of corruption, terrible administration, and over-dependence on oil money, among other factors. As a result, poverty in Nigeria can be considered artificial rather than inherent.
Thus and particularly in the light of the immediate foregoing, it is evident that poverty is not an inevitable phenomenon. It is largely man-made. This being the case, the current and massive poverty in the land is not our destiny. It can be reversed with a view to ensuring life-more-abundant for the majority of our country men and women. What is therefore needed is a combination of vision, courage and prudent policies.
Businessday
