"22 Million Nigerians Living In Extreme Poverty" – Osinbajo

Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that about 110
million Nigerians are living in poverty, stressing that two-tenth of
that figure were in extreme poverty.

Osinbajo made the revelation while speaking at an event hosted
by the president of Ghana, Mr. John Mahama, on Africa and
Sustainable Development Goals on the sidelines of the African
Union meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on Saturday, July 16, 2016.
“In Nigeria, in the current budget cycle, we have the largest social
protection programme in the history of the country. It’s a N500bn
programme,” Osinbajo said.

“Basically, we are looking at lifting many out of poverty, of course
many are familiar with the size of the Nigerian state and we have
close to hundred and ten million people who are poor and about
two-tenth are in extreme poverty.

“In determining who the poorest is, we had problems on that, but
we have very good assistance from the World Bank and the Bill
Gates Foundation. They helped in trying to map the really poor.

“We had to get inside the communities looking for the poorest of
the poor with the small sum of money which is about N5000
(about $25), which is a sum of money that would be given to the
poorest every month, which may enable them feed themselves
and find something that they may do and on the condition that
they send their children to school and participate in immunisation.