Theresa May, British Prime Minister, yesterday said that Nigeria is the home of the highest number of poor people in the world.
She spoke on a day the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said at the ongoing conference of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja that the Federal Government was committing the sum of N500 billion into wealth creation and poverty alleviation.
Speaking in Cape Town, South Africa, where she is currently on a state visit, the Prime Minister said Africa is home to a majority of the world’s fragile states, and a quarter of the world’s displaced people.
According to her, Africa has the highest number of poor people in the world, and that 87 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line of $1 and 90 cents per day.
May’s statement is also coming months after the Brookings Institution named Nigeria the poverty capital of the world, overtaking India, a country with a total population of about 1.3 billion people.
“Much of Nigeria is thriving, with many individuals enjoying the fruits of a resurgent economy, yet 87 million Nigerians live below $1 and 90 cents a day, making it home to more very poor people than any other nation in the world,”
Prime Minister May said. She said achieving inclusive growth is a challenge across the world, adding that Africa needs to create 50,000 new jobs per day to keep employment rate at its current levels till 2035.
The prime minister, who will be visiting Nigeria later this week, said she wanted the UK to become the biggest G-7 investor in Africa by 2022, building around shared prosperity and shared security, adding that a healthy African economy is good news for the UK.
‘Our aid programme must work for us’ She said: “I am unashamed about the need to ensure that our aid programme works for the UK Today, I am committing that our development spending will not only combat extreme poverty, but at the same time tackle global challenges and support our own national interest. “It is in the world’s interest to see that those jobs are created to tackle the causes and symptoms of extremism and instability, to deal with migration flows and to encourage clean growth.”
The UK has one of the biggest overseas aid programmes in the world, expending $18 billion on aid overseas in 2017 alone.
