World Bank report says that sub- Saharan Africa continues to have the greatest number of extremely poor people in the world.

The report on Thursday points out that more than half of the global poor reside in Sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 85 per cent of the poor lived in either Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia.

The remaining 15 per cent of the global poor or about 106 million poor people lived in the other four regions.

In all regions except Sub-Saharan Africa, the regional average rates range from 1.5 per cent to 12.4 per cent, while in Sub-Saharan Africa around 41 per cent live below the international poverty line.

According to the report, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia have the greatest number of extreme poverty.

However, according to recent projections, the report points out that Nigeria may have already overtaken India with 170 million people, and has the highest number of poor people and accounts for nearly a quarter of global poverty.

“In fact, projections indicate that Nigeria may have already overtaken India. The uncertainty about whether Nigeria or India is currently the country with the poorest people is due in part to the fact that the countries are very near or crossing point (either having recently switched or been on the verge of switching),” noted the report issued in Nairobi.

Globally, according to the report, about half of the world’s countries now have poverty rates below 3 per cent, with the world as a whole not on track to achieve the target of less than 3 per cent of the world living in extreme poverty by 2030.

In the 25 years from 1990 to 2015, the extreme poverty rate dropped an average of a percentage point per year – from nearly 36% to 10%.

The rate dropped only one percentage point in the two years from 2013 to 2015, according to the report. (NAN)

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