UPDATED: 83 million Nigerians live in poverty – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday said more than 82.9 million Nigerians are poor.

The bureau made this known in its report on Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria 2019, released on Monday.

According to the NBS, 40.1 per cent of the total population in Nigeria was classified as poor, which implies that an average four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria had real per capita expenditures below N137,430.00 last year.

Invariably, the report said, the monthly income of an individual in this category is less than N11,500 while income per day is N38.00.

The NBS inequality report also indicated that Sokoto, Taraba, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Yobe and Adamawa are the poorest states in the country.

The NBS said Sokoto State had 87.73 per cent poverty head count rate followed by Taraba with 87.73 per cent, then Jigawa which had 87.02 per cent and Ebonyi with 79.76 per cent.

On the other hand, the report disclosed that Lagos, Delta, Osun, Ogun, Oyo, Edo and Anambra States had the least in terms of the poverty level.

A breakdown of the data showed that Lagos State has 4.50 per cent poverty head count rate, Delta had 6.02 per cent while Osun State had 8.52 per cent.

Furthermore, the report showed that Ogun recorded 9.32 per cent, Oyo had 9.83, Edo had 11.99 per cent while Anambra recorded 14.78 per cent.

The report also showed that poverty was more prevalent in rural areas. The Urban Poverty rate was put at 18.04 per cent while the Rural Poverty rate was 52.10 per cent.