World Bank President Jim Yong Kim
The World Bank has said there is no reliable data with which to correctly measure the decline or increase in Nigeria’s poverty rate.
In a video press conference to mark the release of Africa’s Pulse, an analysis of issues shaping the continent’s economic future, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for the African region, Mr. Shanta Devarajan, said the poverty rate in the continent’s resource rich was reducing slower than in non-rich resource nations.
Answering a specific question on Nigeria’s poverty rate, Devarajan said the subject was very controversial and suggested that the country should invest more in the production of statistics that were reliable.
“We (World Bank) don’t know Nigeria’s poverty rate. We don’t know whether it is going up or coming down. There is a lot controversy surrounding it. There is need to invest in data,” he said.
The National Bureau of Statistics had in February released figures that showed that the nation’s poverty level was increasing. The report was mired in controversy as it was rejected by the Federal Government.
The Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, had said, “It remains a paradox … that despite the fact that the Nigerian economy is growing, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year.
“NBS estimates that this trend may have increased further in 2011 if the potential positive impacts of several anti-poverty and employment generation intervention programmes are not taken into account.”
According to him, the poverty rate in Nigeria may have risen to 71.5 per cent, 61.9 per cent, and 62.8 per cent using the relative, absolute and dollar-per-day measures, respectively, adding that the picture would become clearer when the Annual Socio-Economic Survey would be completed later in the year.
Devarajan, however, said the continent needed to translate the high growth rate it was enjoying into poverty reduction, adding that job creation remained an important instrument for poverty reduction.
He said the continent had a large young population that could make it a powerhouse in the future, but regretted that with the slow rate of job creation, the young people might end up working in the informal sector as their parents.
In a statement issued at the end of the conference, the World Bank said Africa was expected to grow at 4.8 per cent for all of 2012.
Excluding South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, growth in sub-Saharan Africa was forecast to rise to six per cent.
African exports rebounded notably in the first quarter of 2012, growing at an annualised pace of 32 per cent, up from the 11 per cent recorded in the last quarter of 2011, it said.
The statement read in part, “African countries have not been immune to the recent bout of market volatility stemming from the Euro area crisis, as well as the growth slowdown that is occurring in some of the largest developing economies, in particular China, which remains an important market for Africa’s mineral exporters.
“However, consistently high commodity prices and strong export growth in those countries, which have made mineral discoveries in recent years, have fuelled economic activity and are expected to underpin Africa’s economic growth for the rest of 2012.”
With the global economy still in fragile condition, Africa’s Pulse warned that the continent’s strong growth rates could yet be vulnerable to deteriorating market conditions in the Euro-zone.
It stated, “In addition, recent spikes in food and grain prices are a cause for concern. An unprecedented hot and dry summer in the United States, Russia and Eastern Europe led to reduced yields on both maize and wheat production worldwide. Africa’s Sahel region is already suffering from higher food prices, high rates of malnutrition and recurring crisis and insecurity.
“Furthermore, swarms of desert locusts and the ongoing conflict in The Sahel also undermine the region’s food security. Countries like Mali and Niger are already suffering from locust invasions with a possibility that the swarm could move to neighbouring countries such as Mauritania and Chad.”
