The World Bank report that says that the number of poor persons in Nigeria is racing towards the 95.1 million projected for this year is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that every minute, more than six Nigerians enter the extreme poverty bracket as the number of poor persons in the country race towards the 95.1 million projected this year by the World Bank
According to the World Bank, in its latest 2022 Poverty and Prosperity Report, Nigeria contributed three million people to global extreme poverty, while the country is “home to a large share of the global extreme poor”.
Also, at the weekend, Nigeria was ranked 103 out of 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI), a position that signifies the nation has a level of hunger that is serious. The Global Hunger Index was jointly published by the German-based Welthungerhilfe and Dublin-based Concern Worldwide on Saturday to mark the World Food Day.
The report, which ranks countries by ‘severity’, gave Nigeria a score of 27.3 – a hunger level falling under the ‘serious’ category.
The index has five levels of hunger under which each country falls – low, moderate, serious, alarming and extremely alarming. This is the second consecutive year in which Nigeria’s ranking on the scale remains the same. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, ranked 103 out of 116 countries in 2021 and 98 among 107 countries in 2020.
At the beginning of this year, the number of poor Nigerians had increased to 91 million, with the World Bank estimating that an additional one million people were pushed into poverty in Nigeria from June to November 2021.
The latest figure of the poverty index, nearly half of the country’s estimated population of about 214 million, had jumped from 89 million, given by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in May 2020. This means that 6.1 million more persons would have fallen beneath the poverty line in two years, making it the poverty capital of the world.
While India has more people living below the United Nations estimated poverty line of $2 due to its large population, by percentage, the country at barely six per cent, comes second behind Nigeria at 32 per cent.
It was stated that the poverty rate had been aided by the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the growing population. Today, October 17, marks the 30th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) established by UN. UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, in his message to commemorate the day, stated yesterday: “As we mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we face a harsh truth: the world is moving backwards.
The Guardian says that as Nigerians continue to lament the impact of flooding across the country, the Federal Government has said the country was not yet out of the wood, disclosing that five states are still at risk of experiencing flooding up to November, this year.
This came as it disclosed that the natural disaster claimed 603 lives, affected 2,504,095 persons and displaced 1,302,589 persons across the country.
Similarly, the government said the disaster injured 2,407 persons, partially damaged 121,318 houses, totally damaged 82,053 houses, partially damaged 108,392 hectares of farmlands and totally damaged 332,327 hectares of farmlands, all across Nigeria.
The states still at risk are Anambra, Delta, Cross River, Rivers and Bayelsa. The Federal Government has, therefore, called for immediate evacuation of residents of the identified areas to avert a catastrophic outcome.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouq, who disclosed these at a press conference in Abuja, on Sunday, in Abuja, tasked governments of the respective states, local councils and communities to “prepare by evacuating people living on flood plains to high grounds, providing tents and relief materials, fresh water as well as medical supply for a possible outbreak of water-borne disease.”
The minister said government had initiated a bilateral discussion with authorities in Cameroon next month (November) on the periodic opening of the Lagdo dam.
She expressed sadness over the loss of lives and destruction of property occasioned by the recent flooding across the country.
She said: “The Ministry is concerned that despite all our efforts of averting the consequence of the 2022 flooding season, unfortunately, we have recorded the loss of over 500 lives, partial or total damage of more than 90,000 houses, damage of more than 140, 000 hectares of farmland, so many roads and other critical infrastructures were also affected.”
The Punch says that an Abuja-based policy think tank, Agora Policy, on Monday, urged the Federal Government to undertake swift and audacious reforms to stop the rapid decline of the economy and its negative impact on the citizens.
In a report titled, ‘Options for Revamping Nigeria’s Economy’, the think tank prescribed solutions to the country’s economic woes and advocated the need for necessary efficient economic drivers.
The report listed deft economic management, strong political will, effective communication and trust building among the solutions to Nigeria’s economic woes.
The report maintains that despite posting positive GDP growth in six consecutive quarters and having the biggest GDP in Africa, Nigeria’s economy is not in sound health.
“Many of the macro-economic fundamentals have worsened and the level of inclusive development is low,” the report which analysed Nigeria’s economic datasets from 2011 to 2021 states.
“Nigeria needs to undertake swift, bold and far-reaching reforms to halt the precipitous decline and the attendant negative impacts on citizens’ welfare. These reforms must be undergirded by inclusion, transparency and accountability.”
According to the report, Nigeria’s economy is in a desperate need of quick and bold actions to get out of the rut of low and fragile growth, lean and narrow revenue and export base, soaring debts and deficits, limited trade and investment, suboptimal government spending, and growing inflation, unemployment and poverty.
The newspaper says that Nigeria’s available power generation capacity fell by 981.8 megawatts between 2015 and August 2022 despite the over N1.51tn intervention in the sector by the Federal Government since the current administration came on board in 2015.
This came as the national grid collapsed 98 times under the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
A document on Power Generation Trend (2013 – August 2022), obtained in Abuja from the Association of Power Generation Companies, the umbrella body of electricity producers, indicated that while available power generation capacity was 6,616.28MW in 2015, it dropped to 5,634.47MW as at August this year.
It was also gathered that the total power generation capacity loss for the sector between 2015 and August 2022 rose to N1.76tn, as operators and experts decried the sorry state of the industry since it was unbundled in November 2013.
Although further analysis of the document showed that the available generation capacity fluctuated between 2015 and 2022, data from the report indicated that the quantum of available generation in Nigeria was not impressive, particularly since last year.
It must be noted that the available generation capacity is different from the average utilised generation, as the latter is constantly lower than the former.
In fact, data from the document indicated that Nigeria’s average utilised generation during the review period hovered between 3,600MW and 4,118MW, which were, of course, lower than the least available generation capacity of 5,634.47MW recorded between January and August this year.
GIK/APA