In under 10yrs, we now have extreme poverty more than China and India combined

One of humanity’s most hopeful developments in recent decades has been the dramatic drop in extreme poverty. In 2000, some 1.4 billion people lived at or below the global poverty line of $1.90 a day. Today, the number is about 600 million.

This remarkable change is mainly due to growth in China and India: Much of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria, has failed to share in the success. A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, according to data compiled by the World Data Lab, it has more than both combined. The count stands at more than 90 million, and has risen both in absolute terms and as a share of the total. Nigeria’s young and fast-growing population is projected by the United Nations to double in size by 2050, making it the world’s third-biggest. Even assuming that the proportion of Nigerians living in extreme poverty stops rising as quickly as it has in recent years, it’s on course to remain extraordinarily high for the foreseeable future.

Nigeria Is Cornering the Market in Extreme Poverty
Nigeria’s success or failure in confronting extreme poverty will be pivotal for the rest of Africa, too — partly because of its huge population but also because of its outsize influence over its neighbors. The government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, recently re-elected to a second and final four-year term, bears a grave responsibility. One wonders whether a politician known as “Baba Go Slow” is up to the task.

His record over the last four years is discouraging. Economic growth has barely recovered following the 2014 crash in the price of oil, which remains Nigeria’s biggest export and source of government revenue. Per capita gross domestic product is less than it was when he took office. Joblessness has more than tripled. Efforts to spur agriculture and other non-oil parts of the economy have failed. Foreign direct investment has fallen by more than half since 2010.

Going Nowhere Fast
Nigeria's performance on selected indicators and indexes


Sources: International Monetary Fund, World Bank, UNCTAD, Transparency International, Bloomberg.

Islamic extremists such as Boko Haram and Islamic State remain a serious threat, violence persists in the oil-rich Niger Delta, and environmental pressures due to climate change have stoked clashes between herders and farmers. All told, more than 2 million Nigerians have been displaced by conflict. The country also has the world’s second largest number of people suffering from HIV/AIDS, and faces huge burdens from tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases. Governance remains weak, corruption and crime rampant.

Despite everything, Buhari retains a reputation for personal integrity and the commitment to fight graft. But he needs to give equal weight to economic revival, without which there will be little progress in quelling conflict and radicalism. This in turn means moving away from the statist mindset that he’s displayed since the 1980s, when he became head of state following a military coup.

In particular, he has steadfastly resisted devaluing Nigeria’s currency, likening a depreciation of the naira to “murder” because of its impact on the prices of imported fuel and food. Nigeria maintains multiple official exchange rates for different transactions. This stops the price system from allocating resources to their best uses, and draws the government ever more deeply into managing the anomalies and inefficiencies that ensue. To promote domestic manufacturing and farming, for instance, Buhari has restricted access to hard currency for importers of more than 40 categories of goods, including cement, fertilizer and textiles. The result is predictable: more smuggling, more shortages, and a thriving black market in currency.

In the longer term, Nigeria should aim to float its currency, as proposed by the International Monetary Fund and Atiku Abubakar, Buhari’s challenger in February’s election. In the short term, unifying the exchange rates and liberalizing access to hard currency would be a big step forward.

Economic reform could also lure more foreign direct investment — which is sorely needed, especially in infrastructure. Nigeria’s decrepit refineries force Africa’s biggest oil producer to import 90 percent of its petroleum products. Its electricity-generating capacity is less than one-sixth of South Africa’s, though its population is three times bigger. Access to power and good roads would be a big help to agriculture, which employs two-thirds of Nigeria’s workforce. Lacking cold-storage facilities and efficient transport, Nigeria’s tomato farmers, for example, must sell to traders at harvest when prices are low, and can suffer losses of up to half their production. Most recently, gridlocked ports are holding up exports of cashews.

To fund public investments, Buhari’s government will need to boost non-oil revenue through better tax compliance and enforcement. Until the tax system is fixed, further reliance on debt would be unwise, even though the country’s debt ratio looks modest at roughly 25 percent of GDP. The problem is that Nigeria collects relatively little revenue, so debt service eats up most of the budget. It already accounts for 60 percent of federal revenue, and the figure is expected to rise to more than 80 percent by 2022 — a level the International Monetary Fund calls “unsustainable.”

Buhari’s priorities are understandable: Fighting Boko Haram, restoring safety and security, and curbing corruption are essential if Nigeria’s prospects are to improve. But reviving the economy is no less urgent. Consider that nearly 2 million Nigerians enter the workforce every year, while unemployment stands at more than 20 percent. The country that could be Africa’s dynamo is instead its biggest demographic time bomb. Before it’s too late, Baba Go Slow needs to hurry up.


https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-07/nigeria-needs-economic-growth-in-buhari-s-second-term

God help us all

Lol.

What is our population compared to India and China?

China population - 1.38bn
India population - 1.3bn
Nigeria population - 190m

Op decided to mislead people with that headline .. Too bad

Bubu is not a stool they can sit and rub their asses on and they are pained. I expect more articles like this from the west and their media. They release same or worse articles about china everyday

It's only left to patriotic Nigerians to realise and see this things for what they are - PROPAGANDA

And it will increase unless something drastic is done. That's why we need forward thinking leaders, not those that will take us 20 years backward.

Wail on idiot people from d so called western word

You people are pained and nothing u will do....

Kundagarten,

Thanks for sharing this. It's important for more Nigerians to understand just how poorly the economy has performed under Buhari's inept leadership, and articles like this are harder for even the diehard believers to dismiss as merely "IPOB" or "PDP" propaganda.

From the way in which people on here endlessly go on and on about "zoning", "betrayal", "the north" vs "the south", etc., one could be forgiven for thinking that what really matters for economic development is having someone from the same "tribe" in power, rather than someone with the right mix of competence, work-ethic and upright character to energetically deliver on pro-growth policies that benefit the ordinary masses. How exactly is an ordinary Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba farmer, shop owner or tailor supposed to benefit from having an incompetent in Aso Rock who happens to speak the same language?

Sad to say, in Buhari, Nigerians have exactly the sort of useless "leader" they deserve for elevating tribalism and religious sectarianism above all else - a man who has nothing to say about improving the quality of primary and secondary school education, who lacks a single idea about providing universal primary health care, who has done absolutely nothing to trim the size of government while moaning endlessly about empty coffers, who has gone on a foreign borrowing spree to fund infrastructure which is already being run incompetently by the same old public-sector buffoons, who won't lift a finger to decentralize policing despite sky-high crime rates ... In short, a man who has no clue about anything whatsoever other than gallivanting abroad on junkets or medical tourism. The one thing that is guaranteed to grow under 4 more years of Buhari is the already vast number of poorly educated, indigent people who are concentrated mostly in the very north Buhari supposedly "favors" by handing out so many "juicy" appointments to a few well-connected northern politicians.

helinues:
Lol.

What is our population compared to India and China?

China population - 1.38bn
India population - 1.3bn
Nigeria population - 190m

Op decided to mislead people with that headline .. Too bad

Read the write up again, the second paragraph.

Nigeria is a Hell on earth











See my Siggy

This article is based on total rubbish....

Imagine this abstract :

A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, according to data compiled by the World Data Lab, it has more than both combined. The count stands at more than 90 million

Imagine in a country of like 190 million people... Their stats is claiming 90 million are in extreme poverty.... Thats a big lie

Check out this stats:
we have over 2 million registered member on Nl.. at least 10 000 is active daily.. All those 10,000 have families... As along as the 10,000 have a browsing phone and data to browse it means their family are not extremely poor

So Where's the Stats coming from

obi4eze:

Read the write up again, the second paragraph.

And Bloomberg couldn't have used same headlines?

kallmemrB:
This article is based on total rubbish....

Imagine this abstract :

A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, according to data compiled by the World Data Lab, it has more than both combined. The count stands at more than 90 million

Imagine in a country of like 190 million people... Their stats is claiming 90 million are in extreme poverty.... Thats a big lie

Check out this stats:
we have over 2 million registered member on Nl.. at least 10 000 is active daily.. All those 10,000 have families... As along as the 10,000 have a browsing phone and data to browse it means their family are not extremely poor

So Where's the Stats coming from

all these ppl too deh insult us... I don't even know who does research for them

kallmemrB:
This article is based on total rubbish....

Imagine this abstract :

A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, according to data compiled by the World Data Lab, it has more than both combined. The count stands at more than 90 million

Imagine in a country of like 190 million people... Their stats is claiming 90 million are in extreme poverty.... Thats a big lie

Check out this stats:
we have over 2 million registered member on Nl.. at least 10 000 is active daily.. All those 10,000 have families... As along as the 10,000 have a browsing phone and data to browse it means their family are not extremely poor

So Where's the Stats coming from?

Is this a joke?

jayfolarin:
Bubu is not a stool they can sit and rub their asses on and they are pained. I expect more articles like this from the west and their media. They release same or worse articles about china everyday

It's only left to patriotic Nigerians to realise and see this things for what they are - PROPAGANDA

Here they comes, defenders of the dullard!

Yes, he's not a 'stool' yet waiting outside for his masters like the a local idio.t

BrownRoofRep:

Here they comes, defenders of the dullard!

It's called seeing beyond your nose kid. If you aren't capable of that, don't try to engage me. Understand?

Kundagarten:


Is this a joke?

If only it were! Unfortunately, I'm certain that buffoon was entirely in earnest. The failure to address an educational system that produces so many such ignorant, intellectually challenged people is just one of Buhari's most glaring shortcomings.

jayfolarin:


It's called seeing beyond your nose kid. If you aren't capable of that, don't try to engage me. Understand?

More like licking your master's as.s, slaves.

Meanwhile, behold how your superman was locked out by Cameron in London.

omohayek:

If only it were! Unfortunately, I'm certain that buffoon was entirely in earnest. The failure to address an educational system that produces so many such ignorant, intellectually challenged people is just one of Buhari's most glaring shortcomings.

Couldn't agree more

helinues:
Lol.

What is our population compared to India and China?

China population - 1.38bn
India population - 1.3bn
Nigeria population - 190m

Op decided to mislead people with that headline .. Too bad

I suspect you didn't comprehend what you read so let me break it down for you in dummy mode ::

China has 1.4 billion [/b]people and just [b]14 million people living in abject poverty

India has 1.3 billion people and 67 million people living in abject poverty .

Nigeria has has 190 million people with 92 million living in abject poverty


Okay now let's do the maths by adding China's poor and India's poor together and compare against Nigerias poor .

67 million + 14 Million = 81 million

So you can see even though the combination of China and India has 14 times our population we have more poor people than both countries combined . Can you see how bad it is ..

We know the part of the country that is responsible.

Hint: they’ve ruled us for over 37yrs.

Nigeria is a sinking boat, worst is any attempt to rescue her is fought by them

APC zombies programmed to be iddiots will dis-agree while perishing from abject poverty themselves.

jayfolarin:
Bubu is not a stool they can sit and rub their asses on and they are pained. I expect more articles like this from the west and their media. They release same or worse articles about china everyday

It's only left to patriotic Nigerians to realise and see this things for what they are - PROPAGANDA

people are reeling out pure facts and you yelling propaganda while in reality 98 percent of your family members fall into the bracket including you

SarkinYarki:


people are reeling out pure facts and you yelling propaganda while in reality 98 percent of your family members fall into the bracket including you

Dude might even be among those uniformed owambe beggars disturbing our peace in daily basis

kallmemrB:
This article is based on total rubbish....

Imagine this abstract :

A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, according to data compiled by the World Data Lab, it has more than both combined. The count stands at more than 90 million

Imagine in a country of like 190 million people... Their stats is claiming 90 million are in extreme poverty.... Thats a big lie

Check out this stats:
we have over 2 million registered member on Nl.. at least 10 000 is active daily.. All those 10,000 have families... As along as the 10,000 have a browsing phone and data to browse it means their family are not extremely poor

So Where's the Stats coming from

Nigeria's education is in shambles for real...Imagine the reasoning of a supposedly educated person

Shocking!

The poor buharists embraces poverty,even the educated ones here lie everyday and one would think they get contracts every month from the government,some of them will borrow money to feed then come here to defend a complete failure.

Buhari has destroyed Nigeria

olagbola45:
Wail on idiot people from d so called western word

You people are pained and nothing u will do....

The combination of China and India with a combined population of 2.7 billion people has just 81 million poor people and your country with just 190 million people has 92 million poor people including you ooand you don't see anything wrong in it ...Guy who do you this thing ?

kallmemrB:
This article is based on total rubbish....

Imagine this abstract :

A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, according to data compiled by the World Data Lab, it has more than both combined. The count stands at more than 90 million

Imagine in a country of like 190 million people... Their stats is claiming 90 million are in extreme poverty.... Thats a big lie

Check out this stats:
we have over 2 million registered member on Nl.. at least 10 000 is active daily.. All those 10,000 have families... As along as the 10,000 have a browsing phone and data to browse it means their family are not extremely poor

So Where's the Stats coming from

It's very easy to do the maths guy , go to your family right now take the income of you dad , your mum and sibling and divide it by 30 and you will see you are all living below the poverty bench mark . Bro if you see two Nigerians standing be assured one is living below the poverty benchmark .

I need you answer this questions correctly

Can your family really afford healthcare?

Can you family afford electricity supply ?

Do you have access to potable water ?

Has anyone in you family ever bought a brand new car ? Not Tokunboh ooo

Is the road infont of your family house tarred ?

helinues:
Lol.
What is our population compared to India and China?
China population - 1.38bn India population - 1.3bn Nigeria population - 190m
Op decided to mislead people with that headline .. Too bad

read b4 comment

Yep...!
The sad truth is that.... - this has come to stay permanent...!

As long as Fulanis herdsmen and their people are in power across the federal system and in almost all royal palaces as emirs across the core north..... Nothing go ever change.

Until they are sent to form their own country...!