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70% of North-Western Nigerians Live Below Poverty Line----- Says UN

Nigerians living below poverty line

The United Nations (UN) is warried over the spate of the nutrition crisis in north-west region of Nigeria.

The says 70 per cent of those who live in the region, live below the poverty line. According Mr. Matthias Schmale who is the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria.

The coordinator, made the disclosure during an audience with Governor Masari at the Government House in kastina state.

Mr. Schmale visited the state to understand the Nutrition and food and situation of food security in the state.

He expressed his dismay over the nutrition crisis which is  bedevilling mostly children in the region saying that the driving factors are lack of knowledge, insecurity and poverty.

He said, ''What we saw in summary today is a couple of things; one is that there is a nutrition crisis all over Nigeria, including Katsina.

''What I have been educated on today is that the drivers of this crisis in your state are a mixture of three factors: one is insecurity and another one is poverty.

''I stand to hear some of your colleagues talk about 70 per cent of your population living below the poverty line. That is staggering and worrying. And Your Excellency, you talked about your concern for your people on many occasions, including how to end this.

''And thirdly, in some places it also seems to be about knowledge or lack of knowledge so education is part of it. I think for any person as a father myself, standing to see children suffering because they didn’t get the right food or not enough food is a traumatic sight. So, that is clearly a problem to be addressed.

''If I had to talk to the humanitarian country team, I would say I have seen with my own eyes a crisis around nutrition in Katsina state. 

''I have seen serious efforts by the government and humanitarian actors to tackle it but the response has to scale off, he concluded.

But Governor Masari in his responds said insecurity, poverty, cultural beliefs, lack of education and skills to acquire knowledge that would make citizens productive were the bane of severe and acute malnutrition bedeviling children in kastina state and the region at large.

He added Kastina state needs interventions in the areas of education and skill development in order to boost food production and eradicate poverty among its citizens while also calling UN to include North West region in their Humanitarian Plans.

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