By Peter Imouokhome
In layman’s terms, poverty is seen as the inadequacy of financial means to sustain a needed standard of living or to afford the necessities of life. Now largely tagged a global phenomenon and a state of emergency, previously, poverty was restricted to defined territories and a people. However, this has now been overly properly dimensioned as it is known that even in developed nations of the world, poverty exists.
Today, the first goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals seeks to end poverty in all forms everywhere. There has been a prior understanding of nations of the world in a pact signed under the Heads of Nations in June 1998.
It was collectively agreed that poverty is a “denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity.” Also, several dimensions of poverty have been identified, especially that of the World Development Report of 2000/2001. There, poverty was summarised as “a lack of opportunity, lack of empowerment, and a lack of security.”In 2020,
the World Bank using a benchmarked poverty threshold of $3.20 per day put
Nigeria’s poverty rate at 71 per cent. The incursion of the poverty malady
while not restricted to Nigeria is more pronounced recently in most developing
nations as they are being faced with dwindling economic growth on the backdrop
of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has instigated inflationary pressures and
an adverse climate change that has put sustainability on the backburners.
More relatable is the scourge of unemployment which has accounted for the rising poverty levels in Nigeria. With the youth unable to find gainful employment, there are reduced income levels, low investments, and dwindled standard of living. Typically, underemployment has been a bane in the Nigerian economy as wages are not in tandem with years of experience and skills.
Corruption is also
a key influence for reduced poverty in recent years as resources meant for
development are embezzled and diverted away from productive uses where they
would have in fact benefited the economy and the people. Crude oil remains the
mainstay of the Nigerian economy and with agriculture recently contributing
increased levels to the Gross Domestic Product, there is a chance that more
youths find work in other sectors and across industries.
The
manufacturing sector which should be the highest contributor of level is unable
to take its rightful place due to a harsh business climate and lack of
infrastructural amenities. The share of agriculture to GDP rose from 23 per
cent in 2015 to 26 per cent in 2021, while manufacturing declined from 9.5 per
cent to nine per cent respectively. With a weak manufacturing base comes the
challenge of the inability to garner enough foreign exchange and income for the
economy. Also, the financial sector has been hampered by a foreign exchange
crisis with the naira depreciating to all-time lowest levels. This has
accentuated poverty in the economy with the middle and high class also affected
as more naira is paid to secure the dollar and other foreign currencies.
Income inequality poses a real challenge to poverty eradication just as a poor education system and reduced literacy, especially at basic levels, have hindered the capacity of Nigerians from having access to the needed information that will trigger innovation and the right consternation of technological inventions.
Exposure to external shocks seems to have been the greatest
hindrance to the ability of the Nigerian economy to put to good use her
capacity for development. With the COVID-19 pandemic came a global shockwave
that slowed down growth resulting in a triple effect of job losses, death, and
economic recession and depressions in several economies due to the promulgated
lockdown. Post COVID, economies including Nigeria have had sluggish growth, and
legacy factors like the labour divisions and disparity in wage and economic
exigencies have also resulted in more people being plunged into poverty.
Weak
governance, inconsistent policy climate, and the existence of bottlenecks that
have stifled entrepreneurship and investment have not helped to increase the
income equality levels and move more Nigerians out of the poverty trap.
Thus, if Nigeria is to aptly tackle poverty
headlong, more attention will need to be paid to the above causes with global
shocks, corruption, infrastructure, and education prioritised to guarantee an
entire state of wellbeing and a high standard of living.
*Peter Imouokhome is an economist and development consultant
No comments:
Post a Comment