TACKLING THE GROWING POVERTY TRAP…(1)

Farming is under strain. The authorities must strive to contain insecurity, and provide employment

Nigerians are groaning under the soaring prices of items, particularly consumer goods. While we are mindful that the challenge is global, what makes the Nigerian situation more sobering stems from several factors, including the high poverty rate. Food affordability has long become a major challenge confronting most Nigerian homes. Basic staples ranging from rice, proteins, grains, cereals, bread to carbohydrates and beverages have been priced beyond the reach of an average Nigerian. Even the on-season periods when prices of certain items drop, providing a window for consumers to stockpile against off-season periods, no longer count. Prices of virtually everything are on the rise.

In its poverty assessment report titled ‘A Better Future for All Nigerians: 2022 Nigeria Poverty Assessment’ released last week, the World Bank projected that the number of poor Nigerians would hit 95.1 million this year. According to the bank, with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being negative largely because of COVID-19 pandemic, more than five million additional Nigerians would fall below the poverty line by the end of 2022. “Were the crisis not to have hit (the counterfactual scenario), the poverty headcount rate would be forecast to remain virtually unchanged, with the number of poor people set to rise from 82.9 million in 2018/19 to 85.2 million in 2020 and 90.0 million in 2022, due largely to natural population growth,” the bank said.

Living in extreme poverty, as it is the case with millions of Nigerians, means living on less than $1.90 (about N820) per day, an amount that cannot guarantee any individual the barest minimal needs for survival. Some of the factors responsible for this state of affair include a growing population amid declining financial resources, high incidence of unemployment, predominant production of primary goods over finished products, aging public infrastructure and opaque systems of governance. In several parts of the country where farming is the main occupation, the incessant attacks on communities by terrorists have made the profession a serious hazard.

We hope the authorities are paying attention to recent projections and reports from the bank. In its Nigeria Development Update (NDU) report last year, the World Bank stated that surging inflation and rising prices pushed an estimated seven million Nigerians below the poverty line in 2020 alone. According to the report, persistent inflationary pressure is driven largely by accelerating food prices at a period Nigeria’s economic growth was being hindered by heightened insecurity, unemployment, and stalled reforms. Similarly, a recent report jointly anchored by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in Nigeria and 19 other countries, particularly between February and May this year (2022). Of the identified 20 hunger hotspots, the report highlighted that Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen remain at the highest alert level.

The reality of our situation today is that Africa’s largest economy is either leading the world or almost doing so on the negative side of growth and human development indices. Figures available paint a dire situation of millions of adults and youths roaming the streets looking for work but finding none. Indeed, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBC) has reported a consistent pattern of worsening situation of unemployment in the country, rising from 9.7 per cent in 2012 to 18.8 per cent in 2017 to about 35 per cent today. That such a huge number of the nation’s labour force is idle is bad enough. But worse and extremely dangerous is the fact that majority of that army of idle citizens is peopled by those between the ages of 15 and 35. Many of them, university graduates, are not only miserable but condemned to the street corner.