I. WHO & WHERE ARE THE POOR IN NIGERIA
1) In Nigeria, 40.1% of the population live below the poverty line (376 Naira– less than 1 dollar a day) with significant geographic disparities. Around 86.9 million Nigerians are now living in extreme poverty. The particularly vulnerable include
a) Around 54 per cent of Nigerian children live in multidimensional poverty.
b) Poverty is a rural phenomenon, as the majority of those that are poor are disproportionately located in the rural areas.
c) Feminisation of poverty: since women constitute over 60% of the poorest people in Nigeria approximately 52 million women live on the clutches of extreme poverty.
i) Inefficient time use: For example, women spend over 6 hours a day fetching for fuelwood, water and taking care of the sick.
ii) Women’s high concentration in the informal sector: In the informal sector there is precarity and no social protection. This was really evidenced during the COVID 19 pandemic when Women lost over 90% of their economic activities due to lockdowns.
iii) Difficult or limited access: to information and knowledge, productive resources, skilled labor, technology and markets.
iv) High levels of illiteracy: Over 70% of women and girls in Northern parts of Nigeria do not know how to read and write. This is accentuated by the high dropout rates due to early marriages. For instance, 78% of girls in Northern Nigeria marry before the age of 18.
v) Inequal Pay between Men and Women: Nigerian women only earn 77 cents for every dollar that men get for the same work.
