The World Bank has released a report declaring Namibia’s extreme poverty rate. It rose by nearly 2.7 percentage points in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic has created large income gaps and increased the already extremely high inequality. According to the Bank, those most affected by Covid-19 are people living in urban areas, people with secondary education, and those employed in construction, or transport sectors.
However, poverty rates are projected to increase in the short to medium-term, with the international extreme poverty rate projected to rise to 18.9% in 2022. Typically, female-headed households, the less educated, larger families, and labourers in subsistence farming, are particularly prone to poverty. The bank also stated that progress towards reducing inequality has been slow and as a result, Namibia remains one of the most unequal countries in the world with a slow pace of poverty reduction.
Data source: All Africa news
