LAGOS, Nov. 18 — Nigeria on Friday inaugurated the National Poverty Dashboard Situation Room (PDSR) with the aim of monitoring the poverty situation in the country.
At the opening ceremony in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning Prince Clem Agba said the center is a real tool for getting a good idea of how bad poverty is in Nigeria.
The idea, according to the minister, was to have a data hub of poverty and welfare information with different features where policy discussions could be hosted.
Agba said the data hub would give the public access to gain more knowledge and understanding of concepts and methods for how poverty measurements are done and how the data can be applied in practice.
“The purpose of the lab is to have people use it and have an understanding of how to deal with issues that we have,” he added.
The minister said the Multidimensional Poverty Index report, which was released on Thursday, showed that 72 percent of people living in rural areas were poor, compared to 42 percent of people in urban areas.
Agba called on state governors to focus on the rural areas as a way to end poverty in Nigeria.
Statistician-General of the Federation Semiu Adeniran said the PDSR was to serve as a one-stop shop for accessing all kinds of poverty-related data in Nigeria.
Adeniran said the center would have all types of tests on poverty to provide useful results at both the national and state level. (Xinhua)
(Special for CAFS) Nigeria inaugurates national poverty monitoring center
