Towards a realistic measure of poverty

In recent times the dollar-a-day threshold for capturing those that are poor or living above poverty has come under increasing scrutiny. This measure developed by the World Bank in the 1980s has been criticized by scholars, analysts’ and statisticians for being an inadequate and inappropriate measure.

Against this critical backdrop, the recently released survey by NOI Polls on the food expenditure habits of a representative sample of Nigerians revealed that, contrary to the believe spurred by NBS statistics that over 61 per cent of Nigerians live with less than a dollar a day, only 19 per cent actually live with less than a dollar a day while 80 percent spend more than a dollar a day. Specifically, the NOI polls show that majority of Nigerians spend an average of 713 naira (4.5 US dollars) daily on food.

Irrespective of whatever margin of error applicable to this poll or the inadequacy of the methodology employed, the NOI polls points to the emerging understanding that popular and current poverty measures are largely inappropriate and for better capture of poverty indices and for the sake of better planning and policy formulation better measures of poverty or well being should be evolved in accordance with the realities of specific socio-economic environments.

Though the NOI polls focused on only food expenditure habits because of the overriding necessity of food for human survival, other indices like access to qualitative shelter, healthcare, education, potable water are important indicators of wellbeing that should guide policy formulation and implementation.

We are equally conscious of the reality that much un-earned income funds a considerable part of the expenditure of many Nigerians especially when one considers the large army of unemployed youths in the country that live off their parents, guardians or family members either residing locally or abroad. Nigeria received $21 billion in remittance inflows in 2012 according to the World Bank. This gives credence to the huge flow of un-earned income for many aged and unemployed Nigerians.

While we admit that the NOI Polls survey on food expenditure habits of a sample population of Nigerians contradicts the long held believe that most Nigerians live below the poverty line of 1 dollar-a-day, it is still necessary that more holistic measures that capture expenditure as well income patterns that reflect earned and unearned income are created. Such data will come in handy for other critical areas of well being as highlighted above.

Nigeria is indeed a good case of a country that attempts to plan and indeed executes socio-economic projects without reliable data. Data gathering and accuracy in the country are rudimentary and poor.  It is in this regard that we commend NOI for its regular surveys on socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria. We equally urge the NBS to continue to take its lead as the major driver for data capture and dissemination in the country.

Government must not relent to provide adequate funding for data capture by NBS with the cooperation of other government agencies. We also hope that the recent flagging off of the bio-metric data capture exercise of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) ushers in an era of sensitivity to data capturing, dissemination and usage in Nigeria.