TheCable

World Bank does not do poverty survey here, says Kale

The Statistician General of the Federation, Yemi Kale, on Wednesday said the World Bank used the 2010 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data to rate Nigeria among the extreme poor nations.

He also said the next international poverty rating would be done next year.

Kale, who made the disclosure while fielding questions at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Lecture Series in Abuja, explained that poverty statistics was computed internationally every five years.

According to him, the rating is done based on the 2010 poverty rating documentation by the bureau.

“There is a lot of discussion about the World Bank rating and people are trying to suggest that it is the poverty rate in Nigeria for 2014.

“The World Bank does not gather poverty statistics in Nigeria, whatever you hear the World Bank president quoted came from our office.

“They did not calculate anything, so, we know exactly what they are talking about and it was not for 2014,” he said.

According to him, there is no updated poverty statistics presently.

Kale noted that whatever anybody was quoting was based on 2010 which was the last time poverty statistic was computed in the country.

The World Bank in April rated Nigeria among the extreme poor nations in the world.

The other countries rated as Nigeria were India, China, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya.