Nigeria drops on global human development index

Report emerging from UN this morning indicates that Africa’s largest market, Nigeria, has dropped on its overall economic and social standing compared to other countries in the world. Using improvement in health, education, income, and standard of living as bases for its rating, the global agency highlighted that Nigeria now rates 158 out of 189 countries in the entire globe.

The rating is generally referred to as the Human Development Index (HDI). The index summarises the standard of living of a population, their overall well-being, and access to key growth facilities such as financing and helpful knowledge that are necessary to build a better life.

According to the report, Nigeria HDI value presently stands at 0.534 compared to the 0.532 it recorded in 2017 when the country was rated 157 on the index.

The critical insight calls for a speedy wrap up of several initiatives mapped in 2017 to raise human capital and infrastructural development in the country. Those initiatives include the Economic Growth & Recovery Plan (EGRP) which is supposed to be replaced in 2020. Target should shift massively to the development of the agro sector, improvement in social welfare for the indigent, development of health infrastructure, forceful execution of the loan to deposit ratio to aid businesses, growth in incubation hubs for tech, and investment across the education sector, in addition to incentivizing SMEs.