Mr Constant Tchona, Oxfam International Country Director in Nigeria, said this on Monday in Abuja at the organisation’s Programme Quality Review and Planning meeting with the theme “On the Road To Becoming an Influencing Hub”.

Tchona decried that this number of people live below the benchmark of N684 per day.

“The number of people that live below extreme poverty level as at April was 91,501,377, making Nigeria the World Capital of Poverty.

“As if that was not bad enough, at the moment, six months later, the number has jumped up to 94,470,535 people.

“What this means is that we have added 2,969,158 people more into extreme poverty.

“By comparison, this number is more than the population of Gambia and Cape Verde combined.

“At the current rate, Nigeria is not only off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but many now believe that up to 25 per cent of the world’s extreme poor will live in Nigeria by 2030.

“Nigeria total population is 200,963,599 people according to the Worldometer and is to become the world’s third largest country by 2050,” he noted.

While describing the burden as pathetic, the country director noted that Nigerian government was aware of the rate of poverty in the land.

Tchona quoted President Muhammadu Buhari’s intention to “lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next 10 years and set them on the path to prosperity’’ to “fundamentally shift Nigeria’s trajectory and place it among the World’s Great Nations’’.

According to him, if this is achieved, Nigeria will shock the world to achieve the SDGs.

“Now the question is what is the role of the citizens and how that role will be played in supporting both elected and appointed officials in achieving this lofty goal.

“What could be the role of International NGOs like Oxfam on that journey?” he asked.

He noted that in order to effectively make impact in poverty reduction, the organisation would have to reminiscent on its programmes to ensure they were not against Oxfam well established quality standard.

He stressed the need to expedite actions, adding that more people are getting into extreme poverty as at the moment.

Tchona explained that the meeting was to reflect on what that role of the organisation in support for government and citizens could be in order to reduce the burden of poverty.

He said that the meeting was also to explore ways to strengthen business support to power up Oxfam execution capability while ensuring operational excellence.

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Osinbajo’ spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement in Abuja, said the vice president made the pledge on Thursday during a visit to Alhaji Muhammadu Bashar, the Emir of Gwandu in Kebbi State.

The vice president, who thanked the traditional ruler for hosting him, said he was in the state to “do a lot of things” one of which was to inaugurate the Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs).

He said he would also take a look at the new markets that had been rebuilt after the fire, and also ensure that some of the schemes being implemented to boost living standards were truly in place..

“One of the very important schemes is what is called the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, which has the TraderMoni and MarketMoni.

“TraderMoni is the scheme where we give petty traders N10,000, and when they pay back, N15,000, then N20,000 and it goes on and on to N100,000.

“The president’s desire for this programme is that every hard-working citizens of this country should be able to have some support from government, no matter how little their inventory.

“Today, at the market, I passed a woman who was selling vegetables and I asked her how much her whole inventory was, the whole thing was N500; it is for such people, such petty traders, that the TraderMoni N10,000 is meant, so that they can buy more.

“The President has promised that by the grace of God, we are going to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.

“I believe very strongly that we are going to achieve that, but we can only achieve it with the able support of the state governments,’’ the statement quoted Osinbajo as saying.

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Gates, whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a major provider of global health and development funding, said there was currently “more doubt than usual about the world’s commitment to development”.

A global health report by the foundation, co-authoured by the Gates and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME), analysed progress against diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

It also tracked rates of poverty, maternal and infant death, access to contraception, sanitation and other development issues, forecasting good and bad future scenarios, it found millions of lives hanging in the balance.

In a telephone briefing about the findings, Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, said remarkable progress had been made in recent decades.

He also said that shifting priorities, instability and potential budget cuts could lead the world to turn away, jeopardising the gains.

HIV, which currently infects almost 37 million people worldwide, is an “iconic example,” Gates said.

“Because the world really did step up with an incredible level of generosity which has meant (annual) AIDS-related deaths have fallen by almost a half since the peak in 2005.”

The Gates IHME analysis, called the Goalkeepers report, forecast that a 10 per cent cut in global donor funding for HIV treatment could mean more than five million extra deaths by 2030.

Under budget proposals from U.S. President Donald Trump released in May, U.S. funding for global health programmes including efforts on HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria would see a 24 per cent cut to about 6.5 billion dollars for 2018.

But opposition Democrats and many of Trump’s fellow Republicans have blasted his plan, saying they will reject it.

Congress, not the administration, controls U.S. spending.

Gates said his foundation is lobbying hard to secure continued U.S. government funding for global health and development and remained hopeful the proposed cuts will not be approved.

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