Despite some rebuttals by the Nigerian government, The Economist Magazine in its review on Thursday, insisted on its earlier report that Nigerians are becoming poorer, claiming that the country now have the poorest citizens in the whole world, under President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in office.
The Economist also said that Nigerians will even become poorer in the years to come as average income per Nigerian, according to it, will continue to fall for the next six years, haven continually fallen for the last four years that Buhari came in.
Likening Nigeria’s economy to the long lines of Trailers on queues heading to Apapa port, the Economist said Nigeria’s economy is “stuck like a stranded truck.”
This is despite the growth claimed by the National Bureau of Statistics that “Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.01%(year-on-year), in real terms, in the first quarter of 2019.” But the Economist claimed that “by 2030 a quarter of very poor people will be Nigerian.”
It said while the inflation is at 11%, some 94m Nigerians live on less than $1.90 a day. According to the report, “Long lines of lorries stretch like tentacles from Apapa port, the largest in Nigeria.
Drivers doze in their cabs, feet flung over dashboards; some sling hammocks beneath the chassis. “Musa Ibrahim, an ebullient trader, says he has been queuing for two days. He gestures at empty buildings. “Most of the companies you see here they done close,” he sighs.
“The Nigerian economy is stuck like a stranded truck. Average incomes have been falling for four years; the IMF thinks they will not rise for at least another six.
“The latest figures put unemployment at 23%, after growing for 15 consecutive quarters. Inflation is 11%. Some 94m people live on less than $1.90 a day, more than in any other country, and the number is swelling.
“By 2030 a quarter of very poor people will be Nigerian, predicts the World Data Lab, which counts such things.”
