NISER: Despite Positive Economic Growth, Poverty Persists In Nigeria

Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) on Tuesday has projected a gloomy picture on the standard of living in the Nigeria.

It said despite the positive economic growth, poverty and income inequality remain prevalent among Nigerians.

Speaking on Tuesday at a national policy dialogue on growth, inequality and poverty in Nigeria, Director General, NISER, Prof. Isreal Taiwo stated that a study conducted by the institute in 18 out of the 36 states of the federation in 2012 indicated that GDP growth had not impacted positively on the lives of the people as poverty and the inequality gap had increased from where it was in previous years.

According to him, “This study covers the entire country and we sampled 18 states out of 36 and we also sampled two local governments in each of the states. The study also included a survey of the Federal Capital Territory.

“From the information collected, we discovered that although the economy is growing, poverty is not reducing and income inequality is also not reducing.”

He said: “That is the evidence that we have and we cannot manipulate the evidence. What we can do is to provide explanations as to why this is happening and the explanation that we can give is that the benefit of growth is not spreading sufficiently to the poor people.”

Taiwo explained that there was need to make technological advancement in order to reverse the trend, adding “We have been focusing on improvements in investment both private and public but we need to develop a technological base in the country, which if developed, will enhance our ability to produce thus making the country grow much faster.”

Nigeria’s labour force participation rate, he observed, was the lowest in the world and needed to be enhanced.

“Our labour force participation rate which is about 50 per cent is one of the lowest in the world needs to be enhanced by bringing more people into the labour market.

“There are a lot of programmes in the system such as the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, National Poverty Eradication Programme, but we don’t have enough information about the poor people that need the programmes and this should be focused on,” he said.