TheCable

Yemi Kale, the statistician-general of the federation, says the National Bureau of Statistics has partnered with the World Bank to conduct the living standard survey.

According to the statistician, this is the appropriate methodology for poverty computation.

“Nigeria via NBS and World Bank are currently doing the living standard survey which is the appropriate methodology for poverty computation,” he said in response to questions on his Twitter page

“So the Poverty World is at best nothing more than an opinion/forecast that may be true or false or worse once the proper poverty study is done.

“Poverty can be computed using annual expenditure of households. So you have to collect data on how much households spend on food and non-food items every week for a year. Then you compare each household to a poverty line depending on which of the four poverty methodologies you prefer:

“Dollar a day takes $1.9 as it’s poverty line. 2. Absolute poverty uses 2000/3000 calories intake so the market value of what is needed to consume the said calories is the line. 3. Relative poverty which relies on income inequality so you are poor relative to others.”

In a recent report, Brookings Institution said Nigeria has overtaken India as the poverty capital of the world.

In a statement sent to TheCable, Udoma Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning, said the report cannot be relied on as a representation of recent trends in the country.

“National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) remains the statutory agency of government with responsibility for producing Nigeria’s official statistics, including poverty estimates. Like several other countries, Nigeria’s poverty estimates are obtained from the National Living Standard Survey (NLSS) undertaken every five years,” the statement read.

“The next round of the NLSS is currently being undertaken by NBS, in collaboration with the World Bank, and this will be concluded in 2019. There is currently no other comprehensive household study on current poverty trends in Nigeria.”

Not correct sir… nbs has been working on this for two years and only got the World bank approval to fund the activity few months ago and has completed the pilot which was long before any poverty clock analysis. Your article is therefore incorrect.

— NBS Nigeria (@nigerianstat) June 30, 2018

In response to TheCable’s article, the NBS has countered that it is “currently” working on the living standard survey, despite the comment of the statistician-general.

According to a tweet from the NBS, it has been working on the living standard survey for two years — “and only got the World bank approval to fund the activity few months ago and has completed the pilot which was long before any poverty clock analysis”.