Provide proof - Economist challenges World Poverty Clock, insists Nigeria is not poverty capital of the world
- Dr Abiodun Adedipe, an economist and member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, has stated that Nigeria is not the poverty capital of the world
- Adedipe was reacting to a June 2018 report by the World Poverty Clock, which indicated that Nigeria had overtaken India as the country with the largest extreme poverty population in the world
- The economist pointed out that a man on a monthly salary of N30,000 might be called poor; but his expenses will usually exceed that amount
- Adedipe urged Nigerians to believe in themselves, be creative and innovative to develop the country
Nigeria is not the poverty capital of the world, says Dr Abiodun Adedipe, an economist and member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group.
Adedipe, also a management and financial consultant, said this at the annual forum of The Platform on Wednesday, May 1 in Lagos, NAN reports.
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Legit.ng gathers that the programme was themed: “The Drivers, Enablers and Obstacles to our Growth”.
Adedipe was reacting to a report by the World Poverty Clock, published in June 2018, which indicated that Nigeria had overtaken India as the country with the largest extreme poverty population in the world.
“As a Nigerian economist and someone who deals with data, I challenge them because none of those who made such claims has been able to prove it. When you talk about poverty, you also talk about how you measure it.
“If you say you conducted a survey, then I want to know where it was conducted, how you drew your sample from the population, your response rate and the usual measures of confidence in statistical analysis.
“I haven’t seen any of such and unfortunately, they reel out these data and we begin to amplify it.
“Take for example, someone who is on N30,000 pay per month; he transports himself to work daily, he provides feeding, he pays rent and pays other bills.
“When you add all of these up, they are by far greater than that N30,000.
“But if you look at his income, you’ll say this man must be poor but when you look at his expenses, the picture will completely change.
“And what I have observed is that there is a whole lot going on in Nigeria in the informal sector, which these foreign analysts ignore,” he said.
Adedipe described Nigerians as incredibly hardworking people who think out opportunities in every situation and excel.
“Nigerians are incredibly hardworking people with solid spirits and we do not need to look far to see the evidence. At 5am, majority are out there working and hustling.
“Just as many are complaining about the Lagos traffic, some see opportunity in that situation as slightly above N2 billion worth of plantain chips, is being sold monthly in Lagos traffic,” he said.
Adedipe urged Nigerians to believe in themselves, be creative and innovative to develop the country.
“Changing the Nigerian narrative is simple – our leaders must walk the talk. We must stop talking ill of Nigeria and then act accordingly.
“Even the foreigners seem to see more opportunities in Nigeria than we Nigerians do, and also have more confidence in us than we have in ourselves,” Adedipe said.
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Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that a new report indicated that over 91 million Nigerians are now living in extreme poverty and at least three million of them slipped into extreme poverty between November 2018 and February 2019.
This was contained in a report by the World Poverty Clock, created by Vienna-based World Data Lab.
According to the report, 91.16 million Nigerians were living below a dollar a day as of February 13, 2019.
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Source: Legit.ng