More than 100m Nigerians live below poverty level —VP Osinbajo

Professor Yemi Osinbajo has confirmed that over 100 Million Nigeria's live below the poverty level.He stated this while delivering a lecture yesterday at the 10th anniversary ceremony of Crescent University, Abeokuta, tagged, “The Nigerian Economy and the Future”.

The Vice President also disclosed that what is still causing the inadequate and epileptic power supply in the country after all efforts have been made to restore the energy sector is the large-scale corrupt practices and dubious awards of contract in the power sector by past administrations.He stated,

“Though Nigeria needs more than 10,000MW to stabilize economic growth, the present capacity of
power transmission lines cannot distribute more than 5,000 MW since the improvement works on transmission lines have been stagnant over years and should be improved upon if Nigeria must achieve tangible output from the sector.

“Unfaithful to awards of contract and execution of contracts being awarded are the major challenges. Several contracts in that regards have been awarded several years back, but have not been completed.
“What is being produced now is less than 3,000 MW. Our transmission grid today can only transmit 5,000 MW and we need to improve on transmission capacity to transmit enough power needed to stabilize economy. That is why the private investors have to increase capital investment in power sector.

“Insurgency and instability of government is a major setback especially in the agricultural sector. Agriculture contributes 24% to Nigeria GDP but the 24% is under threat because of the insurgency in the North East”.