By Hosea parah, Abuja

The Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Bureau of Statistics has launched the results of the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey showing 63% persons living in Multidimensional poverty on Thursday in Abuja.

The survey was a collaborative effort between the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

The report sampled over 56,000 households across the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, it was conducted between November 2021 and February 2022, and provides multidimensional poverty estimates at senatorial district level.

The highlights of the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index survey reveal that:
63% of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multidimensionally poor.

The National MPI is 0.257, indicating that poor people in Nigeria experience just over one-quarter of all possible deprivations.

“65% of the poor (86 million people) live in the North, while 35% (nearly 47 million) live in the South. Poverty levels across States vary significantly, with the incidence of multidimensional poverty ranging from a low of 27% in Ondo to a high of 91% in Sokoto.”

Over half of the population of Nigeria are multidimensionally poor and cook with dung, wood or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy. High deprivations are also apparent nationally in sanitation, time to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing.

Said the incidence of monetary poverty is lower than the incidence of multidimensional poverty across most states. In Nigeria, 40.1% of people are poor according to the 2018/19 national monetary poverty line, and 63% are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI 2022.

According to the report, Multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of people are poor, compared to 42% of people in urban areas.

The National MPI is reported with a linked Child MPI, which provides additional information on Multidimensional Child Poverty in Nigeria.

The report shows that two-thirds (67.5%) of children (0–17) are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI, and half (51%) of all poor people are children.

In the report, the highest deprivations are in the indicator of child engagements – where over half of poor children lack the intellectual stimulation that is pivotal to early childhood development.

“Child poverty is prevalent in rural areas, with almost 90% of rural children experiencing poverty.

Across the geo-political zones, the child MPI shows higher poverty in the North-East and North-West (where 90% of children are poor) and lower poverty in the South-East and South-West (74% and 65.1% respectively).”

The incidence of Child MPI is above 50% in all States and greater than 95% in Bayelsa, Sokoto, Gombe and Kebbi.
Four million Nigerians – 2.1% of the population – live with a child aged 15–17 who is the first generation in that household to have completed primary school.

Speaking at the launch, the President, Mohammed Buhari noted that the multidimensional way of understanding poverty has been helpful in highlighting beyond monetary income based poverty measurements.

Represented by Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to the President, Buhari said:”This multidimensional way of understanding poverty has been helpful in highlighting beyond monetary income based poverty measurements.

“But 63 percent, a big increase in multidimensionally poor according to the 2022 MP1 report.

Buhari reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to eradicating poverty which was in line with the Sustainable Development Goal, SDG, 1.

He said, “I reaffirm our commitment to the first goal of SDG which is eradicating poverty in all its dimensions.

“This government recognizes the importance of the data and the need to deploy it in sharing your story to a broad spectrum of stakeholders both domestically and internationally.

Earlier in a remark, The statistician General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of NBS, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran explained that two more dimensions were added to compute the 2022 MPI report.

He said the concept of poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon is fundamental to the 2030 Agenda. Goal 1, is the End poverty in all its forms everywhere, explicitly includes a target on reducing multidimensional poverty. “SDG Target 1.2 states that ‘by 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions, according to national definitions”.

The Statistician-General said, this is measured by SDG Indicator 1.2.2, ‘the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions’. The Nigeria MPI (2022) is an official SDG indicator for SDG Target 1.2 and can be used to report progress under SDG Indicator 1.2.2.

He added that similarly, this report will be used to track the progress of the SDGs in Nigeria. It can also be applied in examining interlinkages across several different SDGs Goals, showing the simultaneous deprivations of people sharing the same household that relate to Goals 1 to 8, as well as Goals 10 and 11.

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, maintained that poverty is more prevalent in the rural areas with 72% compared to the urban centres which was put at 42%.

He therefore stressed the need for governments to urgently tackle the challenge especially child poverty put at 83% for children below the age of five.

Also, the UNICEF representative Cristian Munduate pointed out that child MPI for all states was about 50% and the urgent need for intervention by increasing enrolment of out of school children.

Cristian appealed to the government not to fail the children as she narrated the story of some children who had suffered abuse and deprivations.

She pledged the funds commitment to supporting Government in its efforts to reduce poverty across the country.

The 2022 Nigeria Multidimensional poverty Index survey was a collaborative effort between the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative