FACT CHECK: Does Nigeria have more poor people than China and India combined?

- Claim: Nigeria has more poor people than China and India combined

- Source: Peter Obi, Anambra state's ex-governor, PDP vice presidential candidate; venue: The Platform, an annual conference organised by Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos

- Verdict; Checked, CORRECT. According to World Poverty Clock, the number of poor Nigerians is over 94 million while the combined number of Indians and Chinese living in extreme poverty is 65,933,410.3 (65.9m)

Peter Obi, vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 elections, claimed Nigeria has more people living in extreme poverty than the combined number of poor people in India and China.

He said this at the annual conference organised by Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos tagged at The Platform.

Legit.ng verifies the claim:

According to World Poverty Clock, 592,562,562 people, that is 7.8% of the world population (7,590,976,390), are currently living in extreme poverty, that is, people living below $1.90 per day.

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Out of the over 592 million, the number of poor Nigerians is over 94 million (94,445,940, as at the time of filing this report).

This is 47.7% of Nigeria's population which stands at 198,066,320 as at the time this report is being filed.

The percentage of Indians living in extreme poverty, is currently below 3%, according to World Poverty Clock.

Specifically, 2.8% of India's population which currently stands at 1,373,011,580. Going by this, the number of Indians currently living in extreme poverty is 38,444,324.24 (38m).

Also, the percentage of Chinese people living in extreme poverty is 0.2% of China's population which currently stands at 1,374,454,303.

With the above figures, the number of Chinese currently living in extreme poverty is 27,489,086.06 (27m).

The combined number of Indians and Chinese living in extreme poverty, going by the figures of the World Poverty Clock is 65,933,410.3 (65.9m).

Created by World Data Lab, the World Poverty Clock provides real-time estimates until 2030 for almost every country in the world.

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The real-time poverty clock monitors progress against Ending Extreme Poverty, which is the United Nation's first Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Verdict

Peter Obi's claim that Nigeria has more poor people than China and India combined is CORRECT.

According to World Poverty Clock, the number of poor Nigerians is over 94 million while the combined number of Indians and Chinese living in extreme poverty is 65,933,410.3 (65.9m), living a margin of 28,512,530 (28.5m)

Poverty rising in Nigeria

India used to occupy the first spot in the World Poverty Clock until 2018 when Nigeria displaced the South Asian country.

It is instructive to note that when Nigeria overtook India in May 2018, it had about 87 million people in extreme poverty while India had 73 million.

Fast forward to October 2019, India radically reduced the number of its poor people from 87 million to 38m while Nigeria's poor increased to 94 million, and it's still increasing; roughly six Nigerians fall into extreme poverty every minute!

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The World Poverty Clock estimates that by 2030, the number of poor Nigerians will increase from 44.2% to 45.5% which will be about 120 million people.

President Muhammdu Buhari speaks

During his second term inauguration, President Buhari promised to lift 100 million Nigerian out of poverty in 10 years.

His deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, has also repeated the president's promise on several occasions. Recently, Osinbajo explained how the Buhari administration will achieve the feat.

According to the vice president, the feat will be achieved through financial inclusion-based policies and programmes.

“Financial inclusion, of course, is the key to realising so much of what we expect as an economy and the president promised in his June 12 speech to lift 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years. That is the commitment of the government of Nigeria," Osinbajo said.

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Source: Legit.ng