The UNDP released its 2009 edition of the Human Development Report recently with Nigeria ranked 158th out of 182 countries below Uganda and Lesotho and ahead of Togo, Malawi and Niger.
Norway was ranked no. 1 on the list for the 7th time.
The Statistics for Nigeria are below:
- Ranked 147th in Life Expectancy – 47.7years. Nigeria was just ahead of Congo DR, Guinea Bissau and Afghanistan.
- Ranked 112th in Adult Literacy Rate – 70%. Ahead of Mali and Madagascar.
- Ranked 114th in Human Poverty Index – 36.2 ahead of Mauritania and Burundi.
- Ranked 8th in remittances with average of $US9,221 million representing 6.7% of GDP (an indication that we have many Nigerians in ‘greener pastures’). 42.9% and 39.5% of the total remittances are from Europe and Northern America respectively.
- Ranked 141st in GDP Per Capita ($1969)
Nigeria, along with Angola, Uganda, and Lesotho left the ‘low’ category and are now categorised as ‘medium human development’ group.
my Point of View: If Nigeria’s aspiration is to be among the first 20 economies in 11 years from now, then our ranking here needs a paradigm shift. If our aspiration is based on current statistics, we may as well be dreaming. It would take a whole lot of efforts on the part of our leaders for this feat to be achieved. Efforts must be made immediately to improve basic statistics that affects living conditions today, this will guarantee our move towards achieving our desired state, at least.
About the HDI: The human development index (HDI) is a summary measure of a country’s human development. It measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions:
- a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth;
- access to knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrolment ratio in education; and
- a decent standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) US dollars.
that’s intrguing
I still feel the country needs a lot of work. Nigeria dreams to be one of the top 20 economies by 2020, if this feat is to be achieved, then the rank here is rather low.