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�75.14m Nigerians Poor�
From Cletus Akwaya in Abuja, 12.20.2004
About 75.14 million Nigerians representing 57.8 per cent of the country's estimated 130 million population are living below the poverty line, Economic Adviser to the President, Prof. Ode Ojowu, has disclosed. At a dinner for media executives in Abuja weekend, Ojowu said the latest poverty index, however, shows a remarkable improvement on the 70 per cent poverty level reported for Nigeria in the Human Develop-ment Report (HDR) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). But the 10 per cent inflationary rate target in the 2005 budget before the National Assembly might not be attained, Ojowu also said. The latest poverty index on Nigeria is a product of the Nigerian Living Standard Survey (NLSS) covering September 2003 to August 2004. Quoting cupiously from the report, Ojowu disclosed that the last edition of the survey in 1996 showed that national poverty was 65.6 per cent in relative measure with urban poverty at 58.2 per cent and rural poverty at 69.8 per cent. "The recent survey covering 2003/2004 shows that relative poverty has shifted from 65.6 per cent to 57.8 per cent in 2004. In human terms, using 130 million as the base population, 57.8 per cent translates to 75.14 million Nigerians living in poverty," the Economic Adviser said. Noting that rural poverty has decreased from 69.8 per cent to 64.1 per cent, Ojowu said the 2003/2004 survey showed not only a dramatic decline in urban poverty but also a reversal of the trend in national poverty. He disclosed that another measure of poverty, absolute poverty which represents food or calories intake covered in the survey, showed that national level of poverty ranges from 19.8 per cent (FAO) to 36.04 (WHO) while absolute poverty in urban areas of the same measure ranges from 6.1 per cent to 15.2 per cent and rural equivalent is estimated at between 23.66 per cent and 41.85 per cent. "By whatever measure therefore, rural poverty is still relatively higher than urban poverty, but food hunger or absolute poverty is on smaller scale in Nigeria than relative poverty," he added. Ojowu said the 10 per cent level of inflation captured in the 2005 Budget was ambitious and hardly attainable. This, he said, was because the economic reform programme of the Federal Government placed emphasis on creation of employment opportunities. He said as a developing economy, Nigeria's option was to keep inflation low or create employment opportunities, saying the intention of the Federal Govern-ment was to provide jobs than keep inflation in the single digit. The Federal Government had in the 2004 Budget estimated to have a single digit inflationary rate. Midway in the fiscal year, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala confirmed that it was impossible to achieve the target, a development which made the Budget Office to propose 10 per cent level in 2005 budget. Ojowu, however, explained that Nigerian economy was in transition and it so was difficult if not impossible to keep a single digit inflationary rate. He said it was not for nothing the advanced economies like Germany, USA, Britain were keeping inflation at single digit because they have attained stability, adding it was difficult for developing countries to attain same. He said that the report of the technical committee on the restructuring of parastatals under the National Planning Commission (NPC) of which he is the Chairman was ready. He said it would soon be made public and sent to the National Assembly for the appropriate legislation to give legal backing to the merger of some of the parastatals. The Commission had merged three of its six parastatals to reduce the number to three in line with the public sector reform programme of the Federal Government. Ojowu who also spoke on the management of the country's foreign reserves explained that the decision to bench the reserves against more international currencies other than the US Dollar was in the over all interest of stability of the country's reserves. He noted, however, that the decision was not one to be implemented hastily as that would place the reserves on the run and invariably reduce its value in international transactions.
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