In a recently published data on its website, the National Bureau of Statistics showed that at the end of 2012, Sokoto State remained the poorest state in the country, with 81.2 per cent poverty rate in sharp contrast with Niger state which had a poverty rate of 33.8 per cent.
According to the information on states of the federation, states that have a poverty rate of over 70 per cent include Katsina, 74.5 per cent; Adamawa, 74.2 per cent; Gombe, 74.2 per cent; Jigawa, 74.1 per cent; Plateau, 74.1 per cent; Ebonyi, 73.6 per cent; Bauchi, 73 per cent; Kebbi, 72 per cent and Zamfara, 70.8 per cent.
Niger, with 33.8 per cent has the lowest poverty rate in the country followed by Osun with 37.9 per cent and Ondo, 45.7 per cent.
Others with less than 50 per cent poverty rate were Bayelsa State, 47 per cent and Lagos State, 48.6 per cent.
However the north still maintained the lead in the average poverty rate of states in the country with North -West geopolitical zone clinching the top spot at 71.4 per cent followed by North-East 69.1 per cent and North Central, 60.7 per cent.
The record showed that poverty was least prevalent in the South-West, with an average of 49.8 per cent, followed by South-South, 55.5 per cent and South-East, 59.5 per cent.
According to NBS, national unemployment rate stood at 23.9 per cent at the beginning of 2012

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