Nigeria has solidified its position as the country with the second-largest population of poor people worldwide, trailing only India, according to Yemi Kale, former Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Speaking at The Platform Nigeria’s Independence Day event themed “Rebuilding Our Nation” on October 1, Kale revealed that approximately 89 million Nigerians, about 40 percent of the country’s estimated 220 million population currently live below the poverty line, painting a stark picture of entrenched economic hardship.
Kale, now Group Chief Economist and Managing Director of Research and Trade Intelligence at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), attributed the crisis to years of policy missteps and delayed reforms.
“To grasp the magnitude, fewer than 20 of the world’s 195 countries even have populations larger than Nigeria’s estimated number of poor,” he emphasized, showing how fiscal pressures, inflation, and inadequate interventions have exposed households to unrelenting vulnerability.
He noted that early warning signs of decline were evident over a decade ago, yet corrective measures were postponed, allowing the situation to spiral.
The revelation aligns with recent projections from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) African Futures, which forecast that Nigeria’s extreme poverty numbers could hover around 89 million by 2043 under current trends, potentially making it the global leader if reforms falter.
This comes amid the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) survey by NBS, which indicated that 63 percent of Nigerians face multidimensional deprivations, far exceeding the 40.1 percent monetary poverty rate from 2018/19, highlighting issues like education, health, and living standards.Despite the grim outlook, Kale struck an optimistic note on the government’s ongoing reforms, including subsidy removals and currency adjustments, describing them as “challenging and painful” but essential.
“There is really no credible alternative,” he asserted, calling for consistent, integrity-driven execution to translate potential into “broadly shared prosperity” that touches everyday lives.
He urged policymakers to prioritize humane, urgent interventions to reverse the tide, warning that without them, Nigeria risks perpetuating a cycle of inequality and underdevelopment.
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