September 03, (THEWILL) – The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) says over 27.4 million Nigerians earn below N100,000 per annum.
It said the figure represents 48.9 percent of persons living in poverty in the country.
SERAP made this known on Thursday at the launch of a report titled “The Ignored Pandemic: How Corruption in the Health, Education and Water Sectors is Plunging Nigerians into Poverty.”
Dr Elijah Okebukola, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, an arm of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), presented the report that covered the six geopolitical zones of the country.
According to the report, about 27.9 percent of Nigerians living in poverty (more than 15.6 million) earn between N100,000 and N200,000 per annum, 10.7 percent earn between N201,000 and N300,000 per annum, and 12.5 percent earn more than N300,000 per annum.
“Poor people are victims and not perpetuators of corruption in the health, education and water sectors.
“States did not have documented policies for helping people living in poverty or people earning low income to have access to healthcare, education and water.
“Even if these policies existed, they were not known to public officers who serve the people living in poor neighbourhoods,” Okebukola said.
According to the SERAP report, 79 percent of people living in poverty (more than 44.3 million Nigerians) rely on personal wells or boreholes for water supply.
The report showed that 34 percent of people living in poverty, about 19 million Nigerians, do not use the government’s medical facilities. It added that 5.2 percent of people living in poverty (more than 2.9 million Nigerians) who went to government medical facilities were denied medical treatment in the last year.
