World Bank didn’t classify Nigeria as extremely poor country - Presidency

THE Presidency, on Sunday, rejected the interpretation by a section of the media and some public commentators of a recent statement by the World bank president, Jim Yong Kim, as indicating that Nigeria is among the world’s extremely poor countries.

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Senior  Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the interpretation was not correct and was “a deliberate misrepresentation of facts meant to disparage the present administration.”
According to the presidential aide, what the World Bank chief said was that “two-third of the world’s extremely poor are concentrated in just five countries: India, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo...if you add another five countries like Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, the total grows to 80 per cent of the extreme poor.”

The presidential aide said while government appreciated the challenges of poverty eradication and wealth creation among the populace and was doing everything to address same, “it will be false and uncharitable for commentators to use the statement as a basis for concluding that Nigeria is extremely poor or that the Nigerian economy is one of the poorest in the world.”
The statement added that “China, which is the world’s second largest economy and India, the world’s fourth largest economy could never have been classified by the World bank Chief Executive as extremely poor countries and this is also applicable to Nigeria, which has consistently been rated as having a positive economic outlook by various international agencies and is also the fastest growing economy in Africa.”
It added that in recognition of efforts by government in reducing the level of endemic poverty in the country, the same World Bank recently promoted Nigeria from a low income ranking to a medium income ranking economy.
“The Bank had also earlier acknowledged that the Nigerian middle class grew by 28 per cent under the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration,” he said.
Okupe noted that the Jonathan-led administration would continue to combat poverty through “a multi-faceted programmes and initiatives such as the transformation of the agricultural sector, which has resulted in a local production of about 40 per cent of Nigeria’s rice consumption, revitalisation of sorghum and cotton production, as well as creation of a value chain to boost cassava production and enhance export capacity of local farmers.”
He added that local production of cocoa contributed 35 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product in 2013; thus creating wealth for farmers and new jobs for people involved in post-harvest processing.
Okupe said it was unfortunate that some commentators deliberately took comments by the the World Bank’s chief out of context and ignored the fact that the same World Bank and many other global financial institutions had consistently acknowledged what President Jonathan-led administration had done in the last few years.
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