BudgIT, a civic organisation has registered displeasure as Nigeria ranks lowest in the commitment to reducing inequality index globally.
Communications Lead, Mr. Adeniyi Soleye, told journalists in Lagos over the weekend that, out of 157th countries in the commitment to reducing Inequality Index in the world, Nigeria ranked 157, describing it as shameful.
He, however, expresses dismay at Nigeria’s position for the second time in commitment towards Reducing Inequality Index in the country despite persistent advocacy for the Federal Government to invest more in sectors that improve on human development capacity of its people and bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
According to Soleye, Nigeria has the unenviable distinction of being at the bottom of the Index for the second year running. Nigeria’s social spending (on health, education and social protection) is shamefully low.
“As seen in the index, the scale of economic inequality has reached extreme levels as evidenced in the daily struggles of the majority of the population and as well with the recent report that Nigeria recently overtook India as the ‘poverty capital of the world.’
“Our insights are drawn from the Commitment to Reduce Inequality Index, the second in the series released by Development Finance International and Oxfam which measures the commitment of governments to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.
“The index is based on a new database of indicators, now covering 157 countries, which measures government action on social spending, tax and labor rights – three areas are found to be critical in reducing the gap. Nigeria was ranked 157th out of 157 which shows that the country is currently spending way too low on key sectors such as health, education and social protection,” he said.
Soleye noted that Nigeria also ranks very low, 104th, on the progressivity of her taxation policy, a stagnated minimum wage, and consistent abuse of labor rights. The CRI index shows that in the past year, Nigeria has seen an increase in the number of labor rights’ violations, adding that the minimum wage has not increased since 2011, put at 55 cents per day.
BudgIT therefore called on the Federal Government to increase its commitments in policy impact and actions by improving efforts on progressive spending, taxation, and workers’ pay and protection as a matter of urgency in order to move more Nigerians out of the poverty line.
“We affirm that Nigeria needs to invest in its people with an aggressive investment in education, health, access to capital and growth poles that expand youth employment. We also take note that on the World Bank Human Capital Index, Nigeria ranked 152 out of 157 countries.
“Beyond the current social investment programs, President Buhari should forward stronger action in tackling inequality especially systemic long-term investments. We believe this should be a major issue towards the 2019 general elections,” BudgIT
said.
BudgIT is a civic organisation that applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, to facilitate societal change. A pioneer in the field of social advocacy melded with technology, BudgIT uses an array of tech tools to simplify the budget and matters of public spending for citizens, with the primary aim of raising the standard of transparency and accountability in government.
