FG dismisses report, says it’s not current

The Federal Government has dismissed a recent report by the World Poverty Clock stating that Nigeria the highest number of people living in extreme poverty all over the world.

According to the report, 8% of the world's population, are currently living in extreme poverty.

It also estimated that 86,977,400 are currently living in Nigeria, a number that accounts for 44.2% of its current estimated 196 million population.

The World Poverty Clock said the poverty in the country is still rising with a negative escape rate of -5.8.

Old statistics

The Federal Government, in its response, said that the indices used in the report must have been compiled when the country was in recession.

The Minister of Trade and Investments, Okechukwu Enelamah said this on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, while speaking to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting.

He said “Somebody may have written a report when we were in a recession.

“Remember that if you are in a recession, what it means is that though your population is growing, people don’t stop procreating, your growth fact, which means that in theory depending on how they run those numbers, you will be going the other way.

“There is absolutely no question that there is an urgency to create employment in Nigeria and it has to be a collective responsibility.

“What I can tell you, with certainty based on one’s background in business and economics, is that if we complete the things on infrastructure and you implement these reports we are doing, that is what I mean by a leading indicator, poverty will go down.

“There is no magic to it. But you have to do it first, you have put in the infrastructure, you have to implement the economic programme which is what will create the opportunities, they don’t drop from the sky.

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“So, I think we should roll up our sleeves as a people and do the work because, if we don’t do it, our people continue to bear children obviously, they would get poorer.

“So, I don’t think we should kill ourselves that poverty is something that just happens. I think it comes out of the urgent need we have as a country, which is why we are focusing as a government to make sure that we create the enabling environment and the infrastructure that are required to create opportunities for our people. I believe that will happen in the process of time.”

IMF says Nigerians getting poorer under Buhari

You will recall that in March 2018, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that Nigerians are getting poorer.

The IMF also advised the government to embark on more economic reforms urgently.