President Muhammadu Buhari  has expressed concern that a large percentage of Nigerians currently live in various stages of poverty.

He said the prospect of the population sliding further into extreme poverty was real.

According to a statement on Wednesday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, the President spoke in a recorded video message to a virtual high-level United Nations’ meeting on trends, options and strategies in poverty eradication across the world.

Mr Buhari said his regime was working hard to reverse the trend.

The President cited the recently developed Economic Sustainability Plan, aimed at stimulating the economy amid  Covid-19 pandemic, as one of the ways his regime intended to reverse the trend.

He said the plan would extend protection to very poor Nigerians and other vulnerable groups through pro-poor spending.

Buhari warned that Covid-19 pandemic had the potentials of reversing decades of progress achieved in the efforts to eradicate poverty globally.

He said that was why his regime was taking steps to revive the nation’s economy in the wake of the pandemic.

Punch