President Muhammadu Buhari has asserted that if India could lift 271 million people out of poverty, Nigeria can “surely” lift 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years.

“If India can lift 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, Nigeria can surely lift 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years.

“Fortunately, we have already started, but we need to unlock the challenges of slow implementation, inappropriate targeting, and absence of adequate resources,’’ Mr Buhari stated on Tuesday in Abuja.

This was during the inauguration of the National Steering Committee (NSC) of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) with Vice President Osinbajo as its chairman.

Speaking at the inauguration, Mr Buhari reiterated his regime’s commitment to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years with a well-researched framework for implementation and funding.

According to him, the committee will monitor the progress of the poverty-reduction programme and any other effort that will enhance lifting 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years.

Last February, Mr Osinbajo lamented the worsening state of poverty in the country occasioned by the devastating economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some weeks ago, after Mr Buhari claimed that his regime had lifted over 10 million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years, the World Bank revealed that seven million Nigerians were plunged below the poverty line in 2020.

Mr Buhari, in his Democracy Day speech, had said, “In the last two years, we lifted 10.5 million people out of poverty – farmers, small-scale traders, artisans, market women, and the like.”