The Federal government, on Tuesday, explained why a large population of Nigerians is still multi-dimensionally poor despite efforts by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
Following the damning NBS survey revealing the number of poor citizens at 133 million, Nigerians have raised concerns over the efficacy of the policies of the government.
The concerns are believed to be justified, against the backdrop one of the key campaign promises of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, which was to take 100 millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, who fielded questions during the presentation of the scorecard of the administration in the area of trade and investments, said President Buhari met widespread poverty when he assumed office in 2015.
Adebayo insisted that fighting poverty in the country requires some strong economic policies and programmes to make the necessary impact.
The minister also noted that despite efforts by the government to address the trend, Nigerians gripped by poverty will be gradually taken out of it.
Adebayo said: “With regards to that question of 133 million being multi-dimensionally poor despite President Buhari’s promise to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, I want to say that Rome was not built in a day.
“This is because as we all know, President Buhari came and identified a very serious problem and has tried to find a solution to it. This administration has started finding a solution to the poverty level it met on the ground. We are growing higher GDP more than even some advanced economies of the world.
“So, this administration is working in the right direction in terms of good policies and programmes it has put in place. We believe strongly that with the expected growth will come employment that will take more and more Nigerians out of poverty as promised by Mr. President”.
On the development and export of non-oil products, the minister claimed the present adminstration had made tremendous progress.
“We are doing very well especially in agricultural products. For instance, ginger and sesame were our largest-selling non-oil export followed by ginger. These are products that very popular especially in Europe. Another product that has overtaken the two of them now, is urea fertilizer which has become the largest selling non-oil product internationally.
“However, we continue to try to market more of our products ready and available in the international market despite many challenges. For instance, Nigeria was the largest exporter of hibiscus to Mexico because they use it in their pharmaceuticals and for drinks.
“But because we had quality issue, they stopped importing from Nigeria. This was why we reviewed our standards to improve the quality of our export products to meet international standards. We are doing very well in this regards, which is why there is an increase in the level of our non-oil exports.”