Nigeria ranks 135th out of 199 countries, lags behind South Africa, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Algeria, other contemporaries
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria is far from jettisoning its status as the poverty capital of the world with a new report ranking it 135th out of 199 countries in the latest Quality of Living Index by Global Citizen Solutions.
The report gave Nigeria an overall score of 54.1, making it unattractive for people looking to relocate from their home countries due to adverse effects of climate change, economic opportunities, persecution or large-scale human rights violations, among other factors.
The rating considered the availability and cost of day-to-day amenities, such as infrastructure, cost of living, personal and political freedom, environmental quality and attitudes towards foreigners.
It comes on the backdrop of the harsh economic condition in Nigeria and reflects its current cost of living crisis.
Nigeria is scored low in both the standard of living and pursuit of attainment of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while is scored partially free in the protection of personal freedom.
It scored very low in environmental quality but very high in migrants’ acceptance.
Nigeria at 135 lags behind other African countries such as Namibia (87), South Africa (88), Tunisia (90), Ghana (91), Seychelles (101), Morocco (103), Senegal (106), Botswana (107), Algeria (108) and Cote d’ Ivoire (115), among others.
It only bested countries Maldives, Libya, China, Brunei, Venezuela, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Gabon in overall quality of living standards.
The top five are European countries – Sweden, Finland, Germany, Denmark and Spain.
“The Quality of Living Index looks at the overall quality of life a country offers. For the Quality of Living dimension, the goal set was to assess how good life is in the country as a permanent/primary place of residence for expats, retirees, and anyone seeking desirable living conditions abroad,” the report explained.
“The set of orienting questions was: What is the overall level of human development/general population quality of life? How happy is the country’s population? How good is healthcare? How affordable is good healthcare? How safe is living in the country? How good is education? How good is it as a travel hub? What is the level of freedom experienced by the country’s population?
“Several thematic areas were prioritized, and research was undertaken to identify reliable data sources with comprehensive country coverage.
“Six main weights of indicators are factored into the index:
- “SDG (30%)
- Cost of Living (20%)
- “Freedom in the World (20%)
- “Happiness Score (10%)
- “Environmental Performance (10%)
- “Migrant Acceptance (10%).”
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