[ad_1]
A new World Bank report has revealed that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to end global poverty by 2030 is unrealistic.
In a report entitled Poverty, Prosperity and the Planet, the global financial institution said that “poverty remains concentrated in countries with historically low economic growth and high vulnerability. many of which are located in sub-Saharan Africa.
He explained that it could take more than 30 years to eliminate this level of poverty, which is mainly prevalent in low-income countries. Almost 700 million people, 8.5 percent of the world’s population, currently live on less than $2.15 a day, and by 2030, 7.3 percent of the population is projected to live in extreme poverty.
While it is no longer possible to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, the report says that achieving the more ambitious goal of increasing incomes beyond the $6.85 a day threshold for poverty at the top requires They point out that it will take even longer, more than a century. Middle income countries.
Currently, 44 percent of the world’s population lives on less than $6.85 per day, the poverty line for upper middle-income countries.
The number of people living below this poverty line has remained largely unchanged since 1990 due to population growth.
The bank defined upper middle-income economies as those with annual per capita incomes of between $4,466 and $13,845 in a range of countries including Argentina, Botswana and China. Currently, 3.5 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, live on less than $6.85 a day, and the report says population growth means the number of people living in poverty on this poverty index has remained largely unchanged since 1990. He pointed out that
The report said there was also little progress on another development goal, reducing inequality. Although the number of countries with particularly large disparities between rich and poor has fallen from 66 to 49 over the past decade, the proportion of people living in countries with high levels of inequality has remained unchanged at 22%.
These countries were concentrated in Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa.
In Nigeria, the number of citizens continues to fall below the poverty line after the untimely abolition of premium motor spirit subsidies led to an increase in the cost of living. Headline inflation slowed to 32.14% in August from 33.4% in July, the Office for National Statistics said, marking the second straight month of decline after 19 months of increases. Poverty is getting worse, with 40.7 percent of Nigerians expected to be living below the poverty line by the end of the year, according to the World Bank.
As of May 2023, the naira is trading at an average of 1,700 naira compared to 460 naira to the dollar, and interest rates have increased from 11% to 26.75% in two years, resulting in sustained pressure on the naira. This is making the manufacturing industry’s woes even worse.
Inflation has been caused by rising energy costs due to gasoline subsidies and exchange rate fluctuations. These two policies were implemented by the Bola Tinubu administration and have been touted as painful but necessary steps to prevent economic disaster.
The security situation, with Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, bandits in the northwest, and rapes and murders in the north-central and south, has forced millions of people into scattered internally displaced persons camps and displaced farmers. have been evacuated from their farmlands. . As a result, food insecurity is widespread.
Nigeria overtook India as the world capital of extreme poverty in 2018, with 86.9 million Nigerians living on less than $1.90 a day, according to the World Poverty Clock. Rural areas, where 53 percent of residents live in poverty, are hardest hit. The chaos of poverty leaves Nigeria with a huge mountain to climb and now is the time to start fighting poverty.
There is hunger in the country and unprecedented hardship caused by decades of misgovernment, economic mismanagement, incompetence, and corruption. The situation has recently been exacerbated by misapplied government policies.
Externally, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have also taken a toll on the country and its more than 200 million people. However, the responsibility for widespread poverty in Nigeria rests squarely with the executive, legislative, national and local leaders.
People living in extreme poverty face difficult and dangerous conditions because many work in the informal economy, are unregistered and unrecognized, and are not protected by labor laws. Despite working long hours, they are unable to earn enough to support themselves and their families.
Nigeria’s poverty is self-inflicted. Although we have abundant natural and human resources, successive federal governments have been inefficient, corrupt, and failed to drive the economy productively. Its local government is even worse. Lazy, wasteful, unproductive and highly corrupt. Instead of running a productive, self-sufficient economy, they enjoy a perverted system of distributing oil revenues from a central pot.
To reduce poverty, the central and state governments need to devise effective policies that leverage the country’s resources to create jobs and wealth. The 1999 Constitution, which restrains the states and creates an overbearing centrist, needs to be amended to unleash the states’ vast potential.
Billions of naira wasted on corruption-fueled cash transfers should be redirected to MSMEs, agriculture, emergency work and youth entrepreneurship support programs. During his first presidency from 2003 to 2010, Ignacio Lula da Silva’s Bolsa Familia cash transfer program, accompanied by aid to small farmers and labor and pension reforms, reduced extreme poverty in Brazil by 12 % to 4.8%, poverty has been eliminated. 20 million people lifted out of poverty.
Recovering the economy requires stimulating spending, an enabling environment for domestic and foreign investment inflows, effective security with devolved law enforcement, adequate electricity supply, agricultural and rural infrastructure, Massive support for mining, start-ups and MSMEs is needed.
Conflict is a major cause of poverty, so Tinubu needs to launch a strategic program against insecurity. The hope is that as farmers return to their farms, poverty will be reduced and jobs created.
The regime should implement radical economic policies by transparently privatizing oil refineries, Ajaokuta steel plants, ports, airports, and other state-owned enterprises. As a result, Nigeria will stop importing refined petroleum products.
Alleviating fears will draw investors and farmers back to their businesses and farms. Tinubu must also rebuild the power sector and focus on agriculture, small businesses and housing to stimulate employment and production.
Nigeria’s distorted “baby bottle” federalism, characterized by lazy states distributing revenue every month, is the antithesis of prosperity. Mr. Tinubu must therefore be a central figure in the restructuring movement to reposition the state to promote production and poverty reduction.
