On Monday 4th May 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the executive summary of its 2019 poverty and inequality report in Nigeria. The report measures and estimates the poverty rate and living standards in Nigeria by making use of the Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS). It is representative at the state level with a sample size of 22,110 households, focusing on increasing the understanding of living conditions of the Nigerian population. The survey collected data on household and individual demographics (age, gender, marital status, among others), access to education, health and basic services, employment, assets, and income.

These are the key things learnt from the report:

82.9 Million Nigerians Live on N377 in a Day

The report shows a poverty line equal to N137,430 per person in a year. This explains that anybody living less than that amount per year, is considered to be poor by national standards. Dividing the figure by 365 days in a year, translates to approximately N377 per day. With an estimated population of 206 million and the NBS poverty rate of 40.1%, it therefore shows that approximately 82.9 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line. It also means that on the average, 4 out of every 10 Nigerians have their real per capita expenditure less than N137,430 in a year. In the urban regions, 18% of the population live on less than N377 per day while 52.1% of the population in the rural region live on that same amount in a day.

88% of the 17 States above the National Poverty Average are in the Northern Region

With the exception of Ebonyi (79.76% poverty rate) and Enugu (58.13% poverty rate), the remaining 15 states with poverty rate above 40.1% are situated in the Northern part of the country. From the data, Sokoto state has the highest proportion of people living on less than N137,430. This is because it has a poverty rate of 87.73% followed by Taraba state which has poverty rate of 87.72%, which is just 1bps less than Sokoto state.
States with the lowest poverty rate (poverty rate below the national average) are prevalent in the southern part of the country, with Lagos state having the lowest poverty rate (4.5%) in the country, followed by Delta state which has a poverty rate of 6%. Osun state surprisingly, has the third lowest level of poverty in the country. The poverty rate in the state is 8.5% followed by Ogun state which has a poverty rate of 9.3%. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has a poverty rate of 38.7%. Even though this is below the national average of 40.1%, it is well above the urban average of 18%.

There is a Negative Relationship between Level of Education and Rate of Poverty

The poverty report reveals that the rate of poverty is high among those with no level of education. Where the head of a household is a male and has no level of education, the rate of poverty is higher than where the head of the household is a male and is educated up to the post-secondary level. The same also applies to the female. On the aggregate level, poverty rate among those with male head and no form of education is 66.17% and 34.72% in households where the household head is a female and has no form of education.
The rate of poverty is however 18.13% in households where the head is a male and has post-secondary level of education. Where the head of the households is a female and has post-secondary level of education, the rate of poverty is 5.66%. This therefore also reveals that households with female heads tend to fare better than those with male as the head.

You can read more from the link below:

https://giftedanalysts.com/five-things-we-learnt-from-the-2019-nbs-poverty-and-inequality-report/