1. AN EMPRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE
NATIONAL POVERTY RATES FOR
NIGERIA: 2003-04(REVISED) AND
2009-10 REPORT.
Prepared by: Afolabi Oluwaseun B
2. OVERVIEW
The NBS report shows that
poverty rate declined slightly
from 64.2% in 2003-2004 survey
to 62.6% in 2009-2010 survey.
However, the number of absolute
poor people increased by 22.7%
in 2009-2010. Moreover, the
increase in poverty threshold
from ₦79 per person per day in
2003-2004 to ₦151 per person
per day might accounts for the
1.6% decrement in national
poverty headcount. Although,
other parameters need to be put
into consideration to validate this
claim.
The report also postulated that
poverty remained high and
monotonic increasing in the rural
areas with a percentage increase
of 39.6 %( 20.4 million people) in
spite of the 4.4% decrease in the
rural head count, while poverty
spread in the urban areas grow
at the rate of 6.32% (1.8 million
people) with a 1% decrease in the
urban head count between
2003-2004 and 2009-2010.
Furthermore, Nigeria’s national
poverty rate has increased by
27.8% (22.3 million people)
between 2003-2004 and 2009-
2010 with the rural areas the
highest contributor (67.7%) to
3. KEYNOTE
The prevalence of poverty differs across the states; Oyo had the
lowest poverty rate (38%), while jigawa had the highest poverty
rate (95.3%) in 2003-2004. Both Oyo and JIgawa contributed
1.59% and 3.99% respectively to the overall poverty rates in 2003-
2004.
In the year 2009-2010, Osun overtook Oyo as the state with
the least poverty rate 37.5%, which means 7.1% of the Osun’s
population were out of poverty by the year 2009-2010. But Jigawa
remained the state with the highest poverty rate at 88.5%.
Nevertheless, 6.8% of Jigawa’s population were lifted out of
poverty when compared to the 2003-2004 poverty rate figures.
The greatest reduction of poverty rate was recorded by Lagos;
where 29.1% of its population were moved above the poverty
line by the year 2009-2010. In contrast, Ebonyi recorded the
highest number of people that fell below the poverty line (19.7%) by
the year 2009-2010 when compared to the 2003-3004 data.
The northern region of Nigeria has high prevalence of poverty.
The region accounts for 62% (63million out of 102.2million) of
4. PERCENTAGE POVERTY RATES IN THE
GEO-POLITICAL ZONES BETWEEN 2003-
2004 AND 2009-2010
SOUTH
SE
10.16
% 12.21%
SS
14.44
% 13.65%
SW
13.62
% 12.77%
NORTH
NC 20.81% 19.61%
NE 18.68% 19.33%
NW 22.28% 22.43%
5. GEO-POLITICAL ZONES HEAD
COUNT PER CAPITA POVERTY
MEASURE (%)
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
NC NE NW SE SS SW
%povertyrate
Geo-polical zones
year__2003-2004
year__2009-2010
6. % OF POVERTY RATES IN THE SOUTHERN &
NORTHERN REGION OF NIGERIA IN 2003-2004 AND
2009-2010
61.78%
38.22%
North South
61.37%
38.63%
North South
8. As a developing nation and a country with
high poverty rates, it is important for
Nigeria to have a national poverty value
because it will help in policy formulation,
targeting development initiatives, and
monitoring and evaluating economic
progress across the country. However,
formulating a national poverty value must
be holistic so as to reflect the living
condition of the citizens. Factors such as
cost of food, access to portable water,
clothing, shelter, transportation, inflation,
9. RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the analyzed report, the following recommendations are
reached:
The Nigerian government must pass a birth control bill, this will
help curb the continuous increase in population.
Government must invest in human development and also make
available basic and social amenities in the rural communities.
Government must develop the agricultural sector and ensure
more is invested in rural areas since they are predominantly
farmers.
States in the northern region of Nigeria must seek greater
collaboration in order to eradicate poverty to its nearest minimum.
Government should consider regional solutions to eradicate
poverty, since each region has unique natural resources which
should be harness to help develop the regions.
The new poverty line should be estimated to be $0.82 per
