133m Nigerians Poor, NBS Confirms

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that 133million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor.
In its latest National Multi-dimensional Poverty Index Report launched, yesterday, the NBS said that 63per cent of Nigerians are poor due to a lack of access to health, education, and living standards, alongside unemployment and shocks.
The MPI offers a multivariate form of poverty assessment, identifying deprivations across health, education, living standards, work and shocks.
According to the Statistician-General at the NBS, Semiu Adeniran, it is the first time they would conduct a standard multidimensional poverty survey in Nigeria.
“The survey was implemented in 2021 to 2022 and it is the largest survey with a sample size of over 56,610 people in 109 senatorial districts in the 36 stated of Nigeria,” he said.
The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who revealed the findings from the report said 63per cent of Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor meaning that they are being derived in more than one dimension of the four measured.
He said, “Multi-dimensional poverty is more pronounced in rural areas where 72per cent of people are poor compared to urban areas where we have 42per cent.
“Gender disparity continues to affect the population with one in seven poor people living in a household in which a man has completed high school but the woman has not.”