PUNCH NEWS
The 10 poorest states in Nigeria owe local and foreign creditors about N1.18tn, according to findings by The PUNCH.
While the data for the poorest state was acquired from the National Bureau of Statistics, the debt data was obtained from the Debt Management Office.
The NBS, in its National Multidimensional Poverty Index report, disclosed that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor.
The NBS said 63 per cent of Nigerians were poor due to a lack of access to health, education, living standards, employment, and security.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index offered a multivariate form of poverty assessment, identifying deprivations across health, education, living standards, work, and shocks.
The report presented the level of poverty in each state of the country.
The NBS report showed Sokoto, Bayelsa, Gombe, Jigawa, and Plateau were the top five poorest states in 2022.
These states were followed by Yobe, Kebbi, Taraba. Ebonyi, and Zamfara.
The PUNCH observed that the top 10 poorest states had a total of 43.99 million poor people, which was 33.08 per cent of the total population of poor people in Nigeria.
Sokoto led the poorest, with 90.5 per cent of people in the state poor. It is followed by Bayelsa with 88.5 per cent poor people, Gombe with 86.2 per cent, Jigawa with 84.3 per cent, and Plateau with 84 per cent.
Yobe had 83.5 per cent of its population as poor, Kebbi had 82.2 per cent and Taraba had 79.4 per cent.
Both Ebonyi and Zamfara states each had 78 per cent of their total population poor.
The NBS report noted that 65 per cent of poor Nigerians (86 million) were in the North, while 35 per cent (nearly 47 million) were in the South.
The report noted, “Overall, 65 per cent of poor people – 86 million people live in the North, while 35 per cent – nearly 47 million – live in the South. In general, a disparity between North and South is evident in both incidence and intensity of multidimensional poverty, with the North being poorer…
