NBS says 133 million Nigerians poor
THE National Bureau of Statistics, NBS yesterday said that 133 million (63 per cent) Nigerians are suffering from multidimensional poverty, with children constituting more than half of poor people in the country.
This means that two (2) out of every three (3) Nigerians are poor and experience just over one-quarter of all possible deprivations in terms of health, education, living standards, and work and shocks.
The NBS disclosed this in the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, Report launched on Thursday in Abuja.
The MPI is the result of the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey carried out by NBS and development partners.
The survey was a collaborative effort between the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
A breakdown of the dimensions of poverty used for the MPI includes: Nutrition, Food insecurity, Time to healthcare, School attendance, Years of schooling and School lag.
Others are Water, Water reliability, Sanitation, Housing materials, Cooking fuel, Assets, Unemployment, Underemployment, Security shock
Among other things the report showed that 65% of poor people—86 million—live in the North, while 35%—nearly 47 million— live in the South.
According to the report, “multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of people are poor, compared to 42% of people in urban areas.
“Approximately 70% of Nigeria’s population live in rural areas, yet these areas are home to 80% of poor people; their intensity of poverty is also higher, at 42% in rural areas compared to 37% in urban areas.
“Two-thirds (67.5%) of children aged 0–17 are poor according to the National MPI, and half (51%) of all poor people are children.”
FG restate commitment to eradicating poverty – Buhari
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has restated his unwavering commitment to eradicating poverty in the country, adding that the MPI results will be used to influence the allocation of resources going forward, particularly to target sectors where most citizens suffer deprivations.
He added that the MPI results will also serve as both a measurement and policy tool to monitor the Federal Government’s progress at achieving these goal of lifting 100 million people out of poverty within 10 years, in line with the objectives of the SDGs and the Africa Agenda 2063
Speaking at the launch of the MPI report in Abuja, President Buhari who was represented by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, said, “This government recognises the importance of the data and the need to deploy it in sharing your story to a broad spectrum of stakeholders, both domestically and internationally.
“Internally, we have now deployed a comprehensive Data Demand and Use (DDU) strategy to embed the use of evidence-based and data driven poverty reduction mechanisms. To begin this deployment of the data, let me share seven reasons why Nigeria’s multidimensional poverty index is a powerful tool to galvanise the kind of action that will push us forward to achieving the Presidential mandate of lifting 100 million out of poverty, within the next decade:
“First, the building blocks of Nigeria’s MPI are a set of deprivations that a person experiences at the same time. They relate to dimensions like health, education, living standards, work, and security. And so, the MPI brings under one roof different Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators and forms of poverty, so we can break silos and address them together.
“Secondly, Nigeria is a large and diverse country. Using the disaggregation to show the vast range in the levels of poverty, we can see the precise needs for each State or senatorial district, which will allow policymakers at that level take appropriate action.
How FG will use MPI report
“As a post-pandemic data, it will be integrated within the National Social Register- the government’s largest databank on the poor and vulnerable. This integration will facilitate better targeting and coordinated response for social interventions; leaving no one behind.
“The MPI is embedded within the Medium-Term National Development Plans (2021-2026 & 2026-2030) as a measurement and policy tool for poverty reduction. Likewise, this year, the Federal Executive Council approved the 2022-2025 National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) under which the MPI project is being implemented.
“The MPI analysis uncovers differences by gender and children. Children are a strategic population in Nigeria. They are deeply affected by poverty, yet they are our future. So, we are building a young child MPI. It includes the national MPI and adds in extra information about early childhood development, which is information we require to improve their lives and life chances.
“At the Federal level, these results will be used to influence the allocation of resources going forward, particularly to target sectors where most citizens suffer deprivations.
“The MPI is not our only data on poverty, combining the insights provided by MPI results with data from the income poverty measurement, it provides a holistic picture of poverty, and helps to shape the path towards shared prosperity.
Dimensions of Poverty
Explaining the structure of the MPI survey, the NBS said: “The National MPI 2022 has four dimensions: health, education, living standards, and work and shocks. The number of indicators, and their ambition, have increased.
“Security shocks were raised in consultations and have been added to the work dimension, which also now includes underemployment. Food security and time to healthcare have been added to the health dimension.
“School lag has been added to the education dimension as a proxy for quality, and water reliability added to living standards. The National MPI 2022 also has a linked Child MPI. This Child MPI extends the National MPI to include appropriate indicators for children aged 0–4, by adding a fifth dimension of child survival and development.
“This additional dimension contains eight vital aspects of early childhood development in physical and cognitive domains—including severe undernutrition, immunisation, intellectually stimulating activities, and preschool. While it does not offer individual-level data, it uncovers additional children who according to the extra dimension should qualify as multidimensionally poor.” Vanguard
