God bless Africa!!!! Poverty rate in Africa reduces to 43% world bank reveals

A new World Bank report has put Africa’s poverty rate at 43
per cent compared to a previous figure of 56 per cent.
The World Bank Vice President, Africa Region, Mr. Makhtar
Diop said during a video conference on ‘End Poverty Day’
over the weekend that “We understand poverty has been
going down in Africa significantly.”
Diop stated that the latest estimates came as “good news in
the context where we have decay of solid growth in Africa
averaging 5 per cent.”
“But while we are saying that, we have a lot of work to do
because we still have a larger number of poor people in
Africa, hundreds of millions,” he added.
He said the report represented the most recent poverty data
available and seeks to highlight the need to know the
determinants of poverty in Africa.
However, he said much of the progress in poverty reduction
came from the non income dimension of poverty which
witnessed improvement in literacy and child mortality rates
as well as increase in life expectancy in the continent.
The Vice President further noted that the new figures were
still a far cry compared to what is obtainable in other
developing world. He said poverty eradication should not be
limited to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but seen as foremost
demand from the people of Africa.
“As society becomes more and more open, people are
voicing the needs and wants for more inclusive growth,”, he
said in a video conference from Ghana.
The reported estimated that two out of five persons were
still malnourished in Africa while education systems are
serious problems in terms of quality.
Diop said more investments and tough actions were
required by governments to fix the energy sector particular
the electricity distribution company which appeared
inefficient and largely contributed to the failure of power
sector.
The new Africa Poverty Report released over the weekend
highlighted weak poverty data in the continent and urged
governments to strengthen research instruments. It further
noted that though non monetary dimension of well-being
improved, levels remained low and progress had leveled off.
It said poverty in Africa may be lower than current estimates
suggest although more “people are poor today than in
1990.” It also said inequality patterns vary across the African
continent.
It further expressed concern over the low quality of surveys
conducted by countries - some often incomparable. It cited a
particular case of Nigeria as an example.
It said: “One survey of Nigeria’s poverty rate in 2010
estimated the figure at 26 per cent; another conducted the
same year, putting the figure at 53 per cent. With 20 per cent
of Africa’s population in Nigeria, this discrepancy makes a
big difference in tracking trends in the region.”