The Federal Government has dismissed the Brookings Report that Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the largest rate of poverty in 2018.
In a chat with State House correspondents Wednesday, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, said the indices used for the report might have been complied when Nigeria was in recession.
“I think first, we need to understand when we get these reports that there are reports that are lagging in indicators which means, people are reporting on history. There are reports that are leading indicators which means that they are forward looking and of course, there reports that capture generally what you do which is current,” he said.
“They are actually dealing with what is current. So, when you get reports from Brooking institute or all sorts of people, you need to look at the context. Somebody may have written a report when we were in recession.
“What I can tell you with certainty based on ones background in business and economics, is that if we complete the things on infrastructure and you implement these reports we are doing, that is what I mean by a leading indicator, poverty will go down. There is no magic to it. But you have to do it first, you have put in the infrastructure, you have to implement the economic programme which is what will create the opportunities, they don’t drop from the sky.
“So, I think we should roll up our sleeves as a people and do the work because, if we don’t do it, our people continue to bear children obviously, they would get poorer. So, I don’t think we should kill ourselves that poverty is something just happen. I think it comes out of the urgent need we have as a country which is why we are focusing as a government to make sure that we create the enabling environment, the infrastructure that are required to create opportunities for our people and I believe that will happen in the process of time.”
