A new report by a nonprofit public policy organization in USA,Brookings Institution
has named Nigeria as Country with the Highest Number of Extremely poor people in the world ahead of India.
The report, titled ‘The Start of a New Poverty Narrative’, says Nigeria has now taken over as the nation with the highest number of extremely poor people in the world, while the Republic of Congo is also rising as the second poorest in the world.
It reads in part: “According to our projections, Nigeria has already overtaken India as the country with the largest number of extreme poor in early 2018, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo could soon take over the number 2 spot (Figure 1 below).
“At the end of May 2018, our trajectories suggest that Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty, compared with India’s 73 million. What is more, extreme poverty in Nigeria is growing by six people every minute, while poverty in India continues to fall.”
The report also predicted that by the end of 2018, there would be 3.2 million extremely poor people on the continent of Afrcia.
It says: “In fact, by the end of 2018 in Africa as a whole, there will probably be about 3.2 million more people living in extreme poverty than there are today.
“Africans account for about two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor and that If current trends persist, Africa will account for nine-tenths by 2030. Fourteen out of 18 countries in the world where the number of extreme poor is rising are in Africa.”
The report observed that it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve the first goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, which is ending poverty.
