Nigeria, also known as the “Giant of Africa” due to its large population and economy is the world’s 20th largest economy. With a population of approximately 182 million, it is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. According to a World Bank report released in July 2014, it has one of the world’s highest economic growth rates at 7.4%. Poverty and income inequality are very high, especially when looking at its massive wealth and huge population to support commerce, abundance of natural resources such as oil and arable land for agriculture and a well-developed economy (World Bank,2013). The rate of poverty is at 33.1% and income inequality worsened from 0.43 to 0.49 between 2004 and …show more content…
After gaining its independence from the British in 1960, the political climate has always been tumultuous. Before becoming a democracy in 1999, military regimes were the only form of government. During those regimes, coups were always happening and corruption became the norm. Even after embracing democracy, corruption is still a problem. Nigeria ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The country’s dependence on oil has made it very rich but there is unequal distribution of resources. While the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, there is no middle-class anymore. This corruption has led to underdevelopment especially in rural areas. Rural communities have no access to clean and safe drinking water, adequate healthcare, security, education and other basic amenities and infrastructure. Farmers don 't have access to equipments and technology to increase yield, children are uneducated which leads to unemployment in future, the lack of access to good roads and electricity leads to little to no yield in production because goods and services cannot be transported or …show more content…
By establishing a poverty line to measure the standard of living, it is easier to separate the poor from the non-poor. The absolute poverty approach is based on minimum nutritional standard that is converted into minimum food expenses to which other expenditures for shelter and clothing are added. A household is defined as poor if its consumption or income level is below this minimum (Aigbokhan,2000).
There are other methods for estimating the poverty line under the absolute poverty approach. The two most popular approaches are the food energy intake (FEI) and the cost of basic needs (CBN). Both approaches try to estimate the cost of attaining a predetermined level of calorie intake or food energy. Overall poverty is expressed in a single index; a head-count ratio, which represents the proportion of the population that is poor. This ratio has been criticized because it only focuses on the numbers of the poor without paying much attention to the severity of poverty