Poverty Will Increase In Nigeria By 2030—World Bank

**Nigerian Senator Disagrees, Says $1 Can Feed A Nigerian Daily

Tayo Olanipekun, Washington DC

Of the five countries known to be home to half of world’s poor people, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will see increased poverty in the next 10 years, the Interim President of the World Bank Group, Kristalina Georgieva, has said.

She said India, Bangladesh and Ethiopia are the three other countries with large population of the world poor but are likely to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of three per cent by 2030, unlike Nigeria with conditions similar to other countries ravaged by conflicts.

Georgieva said this in Washington DC, USA, on Monday at the ongoing World Bank/ IMF Spring Meetings during the Global Parliamentary Conference (GPC), stressing the situation could only be averted if attention and resources are “focused where they matter the most.”

“Our top priority should be to move more financial resources into countries affected by conflicts and fragility,” she noted, adding that governments should also let the private sector come in and that fragility has many causes which include climate change.

She said the Bank doubled funding to fragile states from seven to 14 billion dollars under the International Development Association (IDA) 18 and 19 and “It has made a difference.”

However, Senator Olanrewaju Tejuoso, who was also part of other parliamentarians from around the world, has said the definition of poverty according to the World Bank is not true in the case of Nigeria.

He said the population of Nigeria may make it seem the country has many poor people and that using the dollar as a measure of poverty is inaccurate as the purchasing power of the currency varies in countries outside the United States.

He said the World Bank should have “native Comparison” of the effect of the money in different countries as “one dollar or two dollars can’t do them anything in London or America” but can buy a Nigerian “good thing.”

“Remember they asked us to devalue the naira and you know the exchange rate to dollar is now at least N350. A person can eat good food with N500 in Lagos if he goes to the market and this is not known to the world,” the Senator said.

He also added that “Nigeria is a peculiar country and you can’t compare our population to that of Rwanda. The percentage of poor people in Rwanda may be lower in terms of number when you consider their population which is about twelve million.