According to Vanguard, despite Nigeria’s substantial financial efforts to combat poverty, the number of impoverished citizens has surged dramatically. Since 1999, four federal administrations have introduced over 18 poverty alleviation programmes, yet these initiatives have not made a tangible impact on the nation’s poverty levels.
Under President Muhammadu Buhari, an estimated N3.5 trillion has been allocated to poverty alleviation, surpassing the combined spending of his predecessors: Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan.
In 1999, about 70% of Nigeria’s population lived below the poverty line with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.416. Fast forward to 2023, and the poverty rate increased by 46%, affecting 104 million Nigerians according to the World Bank.
The NBS reported that 133 million of Nigeria’s over 200 million population were multidimensionally poor in 2023.
In 2018, Nigeria was labeled the global poverty headquarters, with extreme poverty growing by six people every minute.
Despite the huge budgetary allocations to social intervention programmes aimed at alleviating poverty, these schemes have largely failed. Analysts, including economist Muda Yusuf, attribute the persistent poverty to systemic corruption and inefficiency within the programmes…..Viêw _More
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