The Federal Government, through the National Bureau of Statistics, on Thursday said 130 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.
According to the NBS 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index Survey released in Abuja on Thursday, November 17, 2022, the figure represents 63 percent of the nation’s population.
It added that the poverty index is mostly experienced in rural areas especially in the north with women and children being the most affected.
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 will 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 63 per cent of Nigerians are multidimensionally poor meaning that they are being derived in more than one dimension of the four measured.
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He said, “Multidimensional poverty is more pronounced in rural areas where 72 per cent of people are poor compared to urban areas where we have 42 per 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.”