40% of Nigerian’s earn less than $1 per day and live in abject poverty

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 40% of Nigerians (i.e. a little more than 80 million persons) earn about N377, less that $1 a day, and are living in abject poverty. This is according to the 2019 poverty and inequality report by the NBS. In other words, this category of Nigerians are not earning up to the international poverty.

The international poverty line, currently set at $1.90 a day, is the universal standard for measuring global poverty. This line helps measure the number of people living in extreme poverty and helps compare poverty levels between countries.

The current forex exchange for the Dollar set by the CBN is $1/N379 meaning that these 40% of Nigerians do not earn up to the international poverty line of $1.9 or N720 per day.

According to the NBS report, while four in every ten Nigerian (40.1 per cent) earn less than ₦377 per day, in Sokoto, Taraba and Jigawa, it is nine out of every ten persons or 90% of the population earn less than N377 or in other words are in abject poverty.

In Ebonyi and Adamawa States, eight in ten earn ₦377 daily. And in Zamfara, Yobe and Niger seven in ten persons earn that amount.

States with low poverty rates include Lagos (5 in 100), Delta (6 in 100), Osun (9 in 100), Ogun (9 in 100), and Oyo (10 in 100)

“The report shows that 15 of the 17 states below the national average (i.e. where the majority of residents are poor) are in the northern part of the country. South-eastern states Ebonyi (80%) and Enugu (58%) are the other two poorest states.

Kwara, Kogi, Benue and the FCT, all in the north-central, are the only other northern states below the nation’s poverty line. Borno State was not captured in the survey due to accessibility”.

Also, five of the best seven states are in the south-west. Ekiti, the sixth state in the region, ranks 12th with 28 per cent poverty rate. South-south states, Edo and Delta, are the other two in the top seven.