Latest global poverty rating by the World Poverty Clock (WPC), has confirmed that over 92 million Nigerians are desperately poor, thus implying that virtually half of Nigeria’s population now live in extreme poverty.
The World Bank says a person can be said to be living in extreme poverty if they live below the poverty line of $1.90 which translates to N693.5 per day.
However, the Federal Government shortly after the poverty capital revelation last year rejected the report, insisting that it had created jobs especially in the area of agriculture and reduced poverty.
It would be recalled that it was the same body that had earlier in June last year unveiled Nigeria as the global poverty capital with 87 million people living in poverty.
With this latest figure, it means that rather than get poverty alleviation, an additional four million Nigerians have since fallen under the poverty line.
Whereas the high point of the report indicates that about six Nigerians become poor every minute, the WPC, created by Vienna-based World Data Lab, noted that not less than 91.16 million Nigerians were living below a dollar a day as of February 13, 2019.
Business Hilights recalls that the World Poverty Clock is a tool to monitor progress against poverty globally.
The body also uses publicly available data on income distribution, production, and consumption, provided by various international organisations, most notably the United Nations, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
