82.9 million Nigerians live in poverty, says NBS
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed 82.9 million Nigerians – representing 40.1 per cent of the country’s population — live in poverty.
According to its executive summary of the 2019 poverty and inequality report released on Monday, the NBS said many Nigerians lived below its poverty line of N137,430 per year.
The NBS pointed out that its findings were consequent upon the Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) held between September 2018 and October 2019 after 10 years.
It said: “In Nigeria 40.1 per cent of the total population were classified as poor. In other words, on average, four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capita expenditures below N137,430 per year.
“This translates to over 82.9 million Nigerians who are considered poor by national standards. It is important to note that this number excludes the state of Borno.”
The NBS added that while the NLSS 2018-19 included households from Borno, that sample was not representative of the whole state since only households from “accessible” (safe-to visit) areas were interviewed.
“Thus, the Borno sample is considered non-random and non-representative,” it explained.
