Nigeria’s oil-rich heartland, Delta State, trails only Lagos as the richest state in the country.
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS latest Poverty Index Report, Delta ranked second after Lagos as a state with the lowest number of poor people.
The report, which showed that 40.1 per cent of Nigeria’s total population was poor said: “Lagos State has 4.50 per cent poverty headcount rate and closely trailed by Delta with 6.02 per cent”.
According to the report, an average of four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capita expenditures below N137, 430 per year, meaning that the monthly income of an individual in this category is less than N11,500 while income per day is N383.03.
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“The report translates to over 82.9 million Nigerians considered as poor by national standard,” NBS said.
In his reaction, Commissioner for Information in Delta, Mr Charles Aniagwu, on Tuesday said in Asaba that the report was a reflection of the “Prosperity for all Deltans” agenda being vigorously pursued by the Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa administration.
He also stated that due to the enabling investment climate created by the Okowa led government, particularly in oil bearing communities, Delta had been one of the highest revenue earners from Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) which also indicated that the state government had been putting into judicious use the monies accrued to the state.
Aniagwu thanked the NBS for conducting living standards survey 10 years after the last one and for using consumption expenditures approach in measuring poverty in Nigeria rather than income approach.
According to him, conceptually, consumption expenditures better reflect the achievements of a particular level of welfare by a household, while income represents the opportunity of reaching a certain level of well-being.
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