Nigerians have been justifiably confused by conflicting poverty data presented by the Muhammadu Buhari administration and the World Bank. According to Buhari, his administration has lifted 10.5 million Nigerians out of poverty within the past two years. But no sooner had he made the statement than the World Bank asserted that inflation has plunged seven million Nigerians into poverty.
These statements might seem to be contradictory to non-economists.
But closer analysis suggests that Buhari and the World Bank are right – depending on how poverty is measured.
The first is income or monetary measure of poverty, what economists refer to as the ‘headcount index’. It measures the proportion of the population that is poor based on a minimum personal income - for example $1.90 per day. This minimum amount is deemed adequate to maintain an acceptable living standard, given the cost of living in a given country.
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James Emejo in Abuja
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), yesterday accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, of distorting facts and casting aspersion on the credibility of the employment statistics they produced.
Yesterday, the Minister had through the verified official twitter handle of the ministry, alleged that the country’s employment data might be inaccurate, particularly the methodology used in arriving at the figures.
He stated further that the World Bank had also queried the methodology adopted as it does not conform with global standards, especially that of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Ngige tweeted: “There has been a little confusion as to the accuracy of data generated by the NBS. So, we want to align everything tomorrow. The World Bank says the NBS methodology doesn’t conform with the global standard, especially the ILO format of arriving at such Employment Index.”