National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that four out of every 10 Nigerians are poor.

The executive summary of the 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria released on Monday by NBS showed that 40.1 percent of Nigeria’s total population was classified as poor.

This translates to over 82.9 million Nigerians who are considered poor by national standards.

The executive summary, which NBS said it would publish the full report at a later date, showed that on average 4 out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capita expenditures below N137,430 (approximately 353 US dollars) per year. This translates to less than $0.98 per day.

NBS revealed that this number excluded Borno state, explaining that while the report included households from Borno, that sample was not representative of the whole state since only households from “accessible” (safe to visit areas only) were interviewed.

“Thus, the Borno sample is considered non-random and non-representative,” the report said.

The top three state with the highest poverty rates are Sokoto with 87.73 percent, Taraba with 87.72 percent and Jigawa with 87.02 percent.

The top three states with the least poverty rates included Lagos (4.5 percent), Delta (6.0 percent) and Osun (8.5 percent).

Daily Trust