Over 100 million Nigerians live below poverty line - Osinbajo

The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said over 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line. He called for urgent steps to arrest this trend.

Osinbajo said this on Saturday while delivering the 10th anniversary lecture of the Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

The Vice-President, who spoke on the topic: ‘Nigerian Economy and the Future’, said unless the country’s Gross Domestic Product experience double-digit rise annually, the increasing population may be difficult to sustain with available resources.

He noted that the fertility rate of Nigerians was increasing by the year, while the wealth of the country was not growing enough to match it.

Osinbajo explained that in a situation where the fertility rate was six per cent, there was also the urgent need to nurture and spur the economy to grow by at least 10 per cent annually, enhancing its capacity to cater for the population effectively.

He identified Boko Haram insurgency, corruption and tax evasion, among others, as factors posing grave threat to the nation’s economy.

On the power sector, the Vice-President noted that large-scale corrupt practices and dubious awards of contract by past administrations, especially as regards contract on power transmission lines, were responsible for inadequate and epileptic power supply in the country.

Osinbajo said despite several billions of dollars spent by successive government on power generation and distribution over the years, businesses and Nigerians still suffer greatly on account of lack of power supply.

He also called for a total overhaul of the sector in terms of generation and distribution, if improvement on power production must be achieved.

Osinbajo hinted that records showed that series of contracts were awarded in the power sector for several years, he said the projects were still ongoing without tangible improvement.

He further explained that though Nigeria needed more than 10,000MW to stabilise its economic growth, the present capacity of power transmission lines could not distribute more than 5,000 MW, since the improvement work on transmission lines had been stagnant over years.

Osinbajo said, “Unfaithful award of contracts and execution of contracts being awarded are the major challenges. Several contracts in that regard have been awarded several years back, but have not been completed.