Despite Rise In Poverty Index, Buhari Says He Remains Confident To Lifting 100 Million Out Of Poverty

President Muhammadu Buhari said he is resolute in lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty despite the country’s poverty ranking.

The Nigerian President who is in his second term in office said this during his Independence Day speech on Friday.

The National National Bureau of Statistics said in 2020 that 40 per cent or 83 million Nigerians live in poverty.

Although, the country’s poverty index for 2021 is not public, it is estimated that the number of poor people will rise to 90 million.

The World Poverty clock ranked Nigeria above India with 8.9 extreme poverty population in 2018.

Buhari said, “​We remain confident that our goal of lifting 100million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years is achievable.”

The plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty is a ten-year plan rolled out as part of the Next Level Agenda of his administration.

“With leadership and sense of purpose, we can lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years,” he had said while delivering his Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2019.

But the World Bank said in a 2021 report that seven million Nigerians were pushed below the poverty line in 2020 alone due to rising prices.

In his speech, he said he has implemented programmes that would save Nigerians from the poverty quagmire.

He said, “​Considering the positive impact of our Social Investment Programs, I recently approved an increase in the number of N-Power program beneficiaries from 500,000 to 1,000,000.

“​Out of this, 510,000 have started the programme while the competitive selection process for onboarding the outstanding 490,000 beneficiaries is in progress.

“The National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is currently being implemented in 35 States of the Federation and the FCT. Over 103,000 women have been engaged and empowered as cooks under the programme, while about 10 million pupils are being fed across public primary schools in the country.

“To grant increased access to credit to the most poor and vulnerable, I have directed an increase in the disbursement of Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme loans to an additional one million beneficiaries laying more emphasis on the smallholding farmers through the farmers Moni program.”