Poverty: National Poverty Rate at 40.09% / 82 Million, Sokoto leads with 87.73% – NBS

The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics has released the 2019 Poverty and Inequality index. The National Poverty rate is at 40.09%, which is estimated to be 82.9 million people.

The results were released by Dr. Yemi Kale, Statistician General of The Federation/ CEO Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics.

Lagos state had the least poverty rate at 4.5% while Sokoto had the highest at 87.7%.

Ebonyi is the poorest ranked Southern Nigerian state at 79.8%. In the South East, the least poorest state is Anambra at 14.8%.

The poverty rate of the nation’s capital, FCT stands at 38.7%.

The total inequality rate ( excluding Borno) is 35.13%. Plateau state has the highest inequality at 40.2% and Zamfara the lowest at 23.49%.

The average expenditure by Nigeria’s poorest 20% stands at N65,690 while for Nigeria’s richest 20% it’s N415,254.

In 2018, Nigeria replaced India as the country with the most poor people.