June 12, 2013
The number of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing significantly, the World Bank says.
The number of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing significantly, revealing a perplexing contrast between the nation’s economic statistics on rapid economic growth and minimal welfare improvements for much of the population, the World Bank has said.
“Poverty rates remain high in Nigeria, particularly in rural areas. These rates declined between 2003-2004 and 2009- 2010, although not nearly as fast as would be expected from the pace of economic growth in the country,” the World Bank said in its ‘Nigeria Economic Report’ May, 2013.
“While the officially reported growth rates of GDP well exceed population growth in the country, the pace of poverty reduction does not, this implies that the number of poor Nigerians living below the poverty line has grown measurably,” the report stated.
The World Bank said the first Nigeria Economic Report is designed to give some attention to longer term trends in the country, including the puzzle of why a decade of rapid GDP growth by official statistics, concentrated in the pro-poor areas of agriculture and trade, did not bring stronger welfare and employment benefits to the population.
Aside from the increase in poverty, the organisation said progress towards a number of the other Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria has also been disappointing, stating that Nigeria was ranked 153 out of 186 countries in the 2013 United Nations Human Development Index, as unemployment rates have been steadily increasing and younger Nigerians are encountering increasing difficulty in finding gainful employment.
The organisation said available data on unemployment suggest a similar story.
“Job creation in Nigeria has been inadequate to keep pace with the expanding working age population. The official unemployment rate has steadily increased from 12% of the working age population in 2006 to 24% in 2011. Preliminary indications are that this upward trend continued in 2012.
Another issue the report highlighted was that the official definition of employment in Nigeria (less than 40 hours worked in the past week) is unusual, and is therefore not comparable to that in most other countries. The negative dynamic is very consistent, however, with perceptions of the population of increasing difficulties for finding gainful employment. Going by this, the problem in Nigeria might best be interpreted as underemployment in contrast to unemployment proper. Read more…
