Numbers To Ponder: 80m In Poverty, 28 Years Imprisonment, 42 Ambassadors...

For Today’s Numbers to Ponder, 82.9 million Nigerians are living below N400 per day, putting Nigeria officially on the map of nations in extreme poverty. This figure means that an average of 4 out of 10 individuals in Nigeria live on about $1 per day. On the COVID-19 frontline, the Central Bank (CBN) has challenged Nigerian Scientists to develop homegrown vaccines for the treatment of the virus. Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, said the apex bank has launched a N100 billion healthcare intervention fund to support them. Despite efforts by the apex bank to increase liquidity in the forex market, the Naira-dollar trade at N445 in the parallel market due to dollar scarcity. In politics, President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a letter to the National Assembly requesting the approval of 42 nominated career diplomats in accordance with section 171(2)(1c) and Subsection 4 of the 1999 constitution.

82.9 Million Nigerians

More than 80 million Nigerians are in extreme poverty, living on less than N400 per day (approximately $1). This number represents 40.9 percent of the population. The National Bureau Of Statistics (NBS) revealed this in its Poverty and Inequality 2019 report. The report was released on Monday, May 4th, 2020, after a decade. With the latest figure, it means that an average of 4 out of 10 individuals in Nigeria live on $1 per day. The figure rose from 68.4 million in 2010 (population at 158 million) to 82.9 million in 2020 (with an estimated population figure at 200 million).[DATAPHYTE ]

28 Years Imprisonment

Justice J.E. Iyang of the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State has convicted and sentenced one Muhammad Halim Ogbobio, self-styled coordinator of Bayelsa State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, to 28 years imprisonment. The convict paraded himself as the coordinator of Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board from 2009-2012.

42 Ambassadors

President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated 42 career diplomats he wants the Senate to confirm as ambassadors. He forwarded the names of the nominees to the Senate seeking confirmation of their appointments “in accordance to section 171(2)(1c) and Subsection 4 of the 1999 constitution. His letter was read out by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the start of plenary on Tuesday.

N510m Forfeiture

A former commander of the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) has temporarily forfeited N510 million to the federal government. Uko Obong, an air vice marshal, headed the PAF between 2013 and 2015, mainly during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. The forfeiture was granted by Justice A. R. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, according to a statement from the anti-graft agency, EFCC.

N2.6 Trillion Sales

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s downstream subsidiary, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has announced that it sold petroleum products worth ₦211.62bn in February. It also announced that sales of the products for the period February 2019 to February 2020 stood at about ₦2.6 trillion with petrol contributing about 98.06 per cent of the total sales value of about ₦2.5 trillion.

N100b Intervention Fund

The governor of Central Bank (CBN) Godwin Emefiele on Tuesday challenged Nigerian Scientists at home and abroad to go back to their laboratories and develop Nigerian homegrown vaccines for the treatment of COVID-19. The CBN governor said the apex bank has launched a N100 billion healthcare intervention fund to support Nigerian scientists to develop Nigerian homegrown vaccines. Emefiele made the revelation while speaking at the commissioning of a 300-bed Isolation Centre at Thisday Dome, Abuja, donated by Thisday Media and Technology Group in collaboration with Sahara Foundation to the Federal Government and the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

$1 For N445

The dollar exchanged for N445 in the parallel market on Monday due to scarcity and shrinking liquidity in the forex market. The extension of the ban placed on flights in the country by the Federal Government, as part of efforts to curtail the spread of coronavirus, further affected the access to forex by the bureau de change operators.