Nigeria has been listed alongside 16 other countries as places with rising cases of extreme poverty, data compiled by a global poverty monitoring group has shown.
According to data released by the World Poverty Clock, Nigeria together with Gambia, Angola, Burundi, Belize and Congo made the list of countries where citizens are experiencing extreme poverty.
Other countries on the list include: Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Somalia, South Sudan, Suriname, Venezuela and Zambia.
Over 100 million people out of Nigeria’s estimated 180 million population are poor and live under 1 dollar (365 Naira) daily, according to World Bank statistics.
This is as a result of an overlap between political and economic power which bends the allocation of opportunities, income and wealth, to vested interests and biases policy-making in favour of the rich.
There is a rise in inequality and growth is compromised due to elite capture of resource management aided by massive corruption and rent-seeking, according to Oxfam inequality report of 2017.
However, the case is the same in most Sub-Saharan African countries.
The data indicated that a total of 19 countries will erase extreme poverty by 2030 while extreme poverty is declining in 46 countries but at a slower pace.
The data also indicated that 103 countries have wiped out extreme poverty while 8 percent of the world’s population is still living in poverty.
It showed that an average of 25 000 people fall into poverty everyday , mostly from Africa and other war-torn countries while an average of 100 000 people escape poverty everyday.
Global poverty rate has been halved since the year 2000, according to data from the group.
However, intensified efforts are required to boost the income, alleviate the suffering and build the resilience of those still living in extreme poverty, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It also recommended that social protection systems be expanded and risks mitigated for disaster-prone countries, which tend to be the most impoverished.
Source:Theportcitynews.com 
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