Okonjo-Iweala says World Bank extreme poor rating not peculiar to Nigeria

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, on Thursday, said the World Bank listing of Nigeria as one of the countries abhorring the world’s most extreme poor is basically based on the nation’s population and not a peculiar case.

Okonjo-Iweala said the phenomenon of concentration of a large number of poor people is peculiar with middle income countries like Nigeria as she cited countries like India, Bra¬zil that are also within the middle income bracket but equally habour huge population of poor people.

Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group, had on Wednesday named Nigeria among a few coun¬tries abhorring world’s extreme poor people, promising to help the country tackle the challenge.

Kim had noted that two-third of the world’s extreme poor are concentrated in just five countries, including India, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Democratic Republic of Congo and that if another five countries, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya, are added, the total grows to 80 percent of the extreme poor.

But in a reaction on Thursday in Abuja immediately after launching the Global Distance Learning Institute (GDLI) which she said would help promote jobs in the country, Okonjo-Iweala said government was mindful of the high poverty levels and working out different strategies to improve the situation.

“Nobody says that everything is fine but we are learning and where we make some progress like other countries, we should also acknowledge it.

“But the focus should be on the answers and what other countries are doing that Nigeria could learn from to improve”, she stated. She said Indian, for in¬stance, is a middle income country, but the largest number of poor people in the world reside there.

Speaking further, the finance minister said, “Most middle income countries even Brazil, have large numbers of poor people that is the reality of today and Nigeria is no exception.

“And the World Bank president also mentioned that Indian is doing well and it has a large number of poor people.”

She said the situation had led to implementation of social safety net program mes to help reduce the poverty rate in these various countries.

She recalled that for Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan has mandated some of the ministers to jointly work out a social safety programme for the country.

“So, we should not try to single Nigeria out. The phenomenon we have in Nigeria is we are growing but there are poor people is everywhere”, she added.