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Okonjo-Iweala clarifies World Bank’s poverty rating on Nigeria

By on April 5, 2014

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the World Bank’s, “extreme poor nation’’ rating of Nigeria was based on the large number of poor people living in the country.

Okonjo-Iweala made the clarification when she interacted with journalists in Abuja yesterday.

World Bank President, Dr Jim Kim, on Wednesday in Washington, said Nigeria was among the world’s extremely poor countries.

The other countries that were also rated alongside Nigeria were India, China, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Kim had said: “The fact is that two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor are concentrated in just five countries: India, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“If you add another five countries, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, the total grows to 80 per cent of the extreme poor.”

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Okonjo-Iweala explained that the number of poor people in a country,  irrespective of the country’s level of development, was the parameter used to rate Nigeria among nations with high poverty levels.

According to her, the phenomenon of large number of poor people is peculiar with middle-income countries to which Nigeria belongs.
“India, a middle-income country, one of the largest economies in the world like Nigeria, is a big economy, but the largest number of poor people in the world reside in Indian, China and other places.

“Most middle-income countries, including Brazil,  have large number of poor people that is the reality of today and Nigeria is no exception.

“And when the World Bank president was talking, he also talked about those countries. He mentioned that India is doing well and it has a large number of poor people.’’

“So, we should not try to single Nigeria out. The phenomenon we have in Nigeria is that we are growing but there are poor people everywhere,’’ she added

The minister advised that the focus of Nigerians now should be on the answers to the problem raised by the World Bank and what other countries are doing that Nigeria could learn from so as to improve.

“Nobody says that everything is fine but we are learning and where we make some progress like other countries, we should also acknowledge it,’’ she stressed.

She said the federal government was making efforts in different areas of the nation’s economy to reduce poverty and improve living standards of the people.

According to her, President Goodluck Jonathan has mandated four or five of the ministers to work together to formulate a social safety programme to be implemented for the benefit of the citizens.

 

 

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One Comment

  1. Abubakar1962

    April 5, 2014 at 7:38 pm

    Madam Minister, thee are no growing private jet owners in the other countries under comparison. We have made in China, India, etc goods in Nigeria. Do we have made in Nigeria goods in China, India, Brazil? Please, just accept the facts as presented. No cosmetics, please.