48% of Nigerians Now Live Below Poverty Line, Says Humanitarian Affairs Minister

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has declared that the per cent of Nigerians living below poverty line has improved to between 45- 48 percent.

She argued that the percentage was a significant improvement compared with the 75 per cent poverty rate before the Buhari-led administration came on board in 2015.

She made the assertion yesterday at the PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-23) in Abuja.

She said the number of Nigerians, estimated at 80 million, who lived under the poverty line, reduced as a result of the social nets and other interventionist programmes introduced by government since 2015.

“Let me also mention here that when this administration came on board in 2015, l think the statistics then said that over 75 per cent of our populace lived below the poverty line.

“The story is different now. I don’t know the exact statistics, but it is in the range of 45 to 48 per cent so we have made significant progress in this regard,” Farouq said.

The minister said government’s judicious use of resources has considerably impacted many people and families, who hitherto could not feed and lacked any form of business and capital to be productive members of the society.

She listed other achievements of the Buhari administration to include the provision of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of N5,000 monthly each to 1,940, 325 vulnerable persons in 36 states and the FCT, while 355,000 vulnerable persons received grants of N20,000 each for vulnerable groups in 36 states and the FCT.

She added that 1.5 million youths on N30,000 monthly stipends were also enrolled under four different batches of the N-Power programme.

The minister stated that over 9.9 million pupils were fed in 36 states and the FCT under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme where 128,531 cooks were employed from the local communities while local farmers were engaged to supply locally grown food.

She described her appointment as the minister of humanitarian affairs to cater for people who are in need as an honour, saying if she was given the choice to choose between Petroleum or Humanitarian Affairs, she would still choose to serve in the latter.