NBS Report Says 133 million Nigerians are Poor

The National Bureau of Statistics latest data has indicated that 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.

In its latest National Multidimensional Poverty Index Report launched on Thursday, the NBS said that 63 per cent of Nigerians are poor due to a lack of access to health, education, and living standards, alongside unemployment and shocks.

Just of recent, the United Nations report placed Nigeria as the sixth most populated country in the world, with an estimated 216 million people in 2022, accounting for 2.7 per cent of the global population.

The NBC MPI report estimates that 133 million Nigerians are poor out of the 216 million population as stated by UN.

The MPI offers a multivariate form of poverty assessment, identifying deprivations across health, education, living standards, work and shocks.

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According to the Statistician-General at the NBS, Semiu Adeniran, it is the first time they will conduct a standard multidimensional poverty survey in Nigeria.

“The survey was implemented in 2021 to 2022 and it is the largest survey with a sample size of over 56,610 people in 109 senatorial districts in the 36 stated of Nigeria,” he said.

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who revealed the findings from the report said 63 per cent of Nigerians are multidimensionally poor meaning that they are being derived in more than one dimension of the four measured.

He said, “Multidimensional poverty is more pronounced in rural areas where 72 per cent of people are poor compared to urban areas where we have 42 per cent.

“Gender disparity continues to affect the population with one in seven poor people living in a household in which a man has completed high school but the woman has not.”