More than 40 percent of
“extremely poor people” in the world will be living in Nigeria and DR Congo by
2050, a report by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has revealed.
In the 2018 goalkeepers report
released Tuesday, the foundation said by 2050, Nigeria will have 152 million
people in extreme poverty out of a projected population of 429 million.
It blamed this on the lack of
investment in human capital to correspond with the increasing population
growth.
Nigeria is currently the seventh
most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 198 million.
The annual report, produced in
partnership with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the
University of Washington, tracks progress being made on the United Nations
sustainable development goals (SDGs).
In June, Brookings Institution
reported that Nigeria had overtaken India as the nation with the highest number
of poor people, with 87 million of its citizens in extreme poverty.
The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) had also said in March that Nigerians are getting poorer due to the lack
of coherent and comprehensive economic reforms.
The goalkeepers report said while
more than a billion in the world have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty
since 2000, “extreme poverty is becoming heavily concentrated in sub-Saharan
African countries”.
“By 2050, that’s where 86 percent
of the extremely poor people in the world are projected to live. The challenge is that within Africa, poverty
is concentrating in just a handful of very fast-growing countries,” the report
said.
“By 2050, for example, more than
40 percent of the extremely poor people in the world will live in just two
countries: Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. Even within these
countries, poverty is still concentrating in certain areas.”
It warned that decades of
stunning progress in the fight against poverty and disease may be on the verge
of stalling.
This, the report said, is because
the poorest parts of the world are growing faster than everywhere else. “If
current trend continues, the number of poor people in the world will stop
falling – and could even start rising,” it said.
THE WAY OUT
The foundation said to address
the poverty crisis, adequate investment would need to be made in young people,
especially in areas of education, health and human capital development.
The education and health sectors
in Nigeria have suffered neglect over the years. In 2018, N542 billion was
earmarked for the education sector while health got N356 billion – out of the
N9.1 trillion budget.
“Investing in young people’s
health and education is the best way for a country to unlock productivity and
innovation; cut poverty, create opportunities and generate prosperity,” the
report added.
“The next step is making sure
children don’t merely survive but also thrive.”
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