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Alarming! Nigeria now has over 91m citizens living under extreme poverty

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Nigeria, Congo DR will be home to over 40% of world’s poorest by 2050– Report

The latest data from the World Poverty Clock has put the number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty to be over 91 million.

According to the Austria based data lab, at least three million Nigerians have slipped into extreme poverty between November 2018 and February 2019, with the report specifically noting that 91.16 million Nigerians were living below a dollar a day as of February 13, 2019.

It would be recalled that in June 2018, the Brookings Institution projected that Nigeria had overtaken India as the poverty capital of the world, with 86.9 million extremely poor people.

This was confimed by the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, after she said that Nigeria had become home to the largest number of very poor people in the world. She put the figure at 87 million.

“Much of Nigeria is thriving, with many individuals enjoying the fruits of a resurgent economy, yet 87 million Nigerians live below $1 and 90 cents a day, making it home to more very poor people than any other nation in the world,” the British PM said.

The number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty has however increased since May made the confirmation in South Africa in August 2018, with six people falling into poverty every minute, according to Brookings Institution.

Read also: Nigeria to remain poverty capital of the world till 2030 if…

India, which has 73 million people living in extreme poverty as at June, 2018, now has 48.7 million. Meaning that India has effectively pulled nothing less than 24 million people out of extreme poverty.

According to the World Bank, a person can be said to be living in extreme poverty, if he or she lives below the poverty line of $1.90 or N693.5 per day.

The bank also explained the extreme poverty index, saying: “when estimating poverty using monetary measures, one may have a choice between using income or consumption as the indicator of well-being.

“Most analysts argue that, provided the information on consumption obtained from a household survey is detailed enough, consumption will be a better indicator of poverty measurement than income.

“However, using the World Bank’s poverty line, if you live below $1.90 a day, you will be classified as living in extreme poverty.”

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