3 Nigerians Wealthier Than 83 Million Other Nigerians

On Monday, Nigeria’s Oxfam announced that three of the country’s richest men are wealthier than 83 million Nigerians.

Oxfam said,Davos 2023 Inequality ReportThe announcement was made at a media briefing in Abuja on Monday ahead of a global meeting of world leaders scheduled in Davos, Switzerland next week.

The richest 0.003% of Nigerians (6,355 people worth more than $5 million) have 1.4 times the wealth of the other 107 million Nigerians, according to the report.

“A wealth tax of 2% on billionaires, 3% on those with wealth over $50 million, and 5% on Nigerian billionaires would raise $3.2 billion annually. is enough to double the

“Oxfam is calling for higher taxes on billionaires, not workers, in a message sent to world leaders ahead of the 2023 Davos conference hosted by the World Economic Forum, WEF, and ‘Survival of the richest’ will be released on day one: The world’s elite are flocking to Swiss ski resorts as extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years,” said the report. .

The report also notes that a tax of up to 5% on millionaires and billionaires around the world could raise $1.7 trillion annually and lift 2 billion people out of poverty.

The wealth of Nigerian billionaires has increased by a third since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Vincent Ahonsi, country director of Oxfam in Nigeria, who released the report.

“Nigeria’s richest men have more wealth than 83 million Nigerians. almost two-thirds of the world’s population, almost twice as many as the bottom 99% of the world’s population.In the last decade, the 1% of the wealthy held about half of all new wealth. I got in,” Ahonsi reportedly told Vanguard.

He said that over five years, Nigeria has spent an average of 9% of its income on debt servicing, and in 2020, before COVID, this was expected to be 29% or 56 billion.

This amount is almost four times the education and social protection budget, six times the health care budget and 14 times the agriculture budget, he said.

inequality

Ahonsi noted that Nigeria spent 80.6 percent of its revenues on debt service in 2022, despite Nigeria’s 2019 tax rate-to-GDP ratio being one of the lowest in the world.

He said that while millions of Nigerians were unsure where their next meal would come from, wealthy Nigerians were getting richer, not paying their fair share of taxes, and faced with complexities and loopholes in tax laws, Take advantage of the lack of transparency. Accountability in tax implementation deprives countries of the revenue they need to provide social protection and reduce inequality.

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“With more than 20 million children out of school, it would be inappropriate to continue giving five wealthy individuals and businesses tax breaks, incentives and exemptions.

“Roughly 6 in 10 Nigerians lack access to quality primary health care services, and in a context of worsening disease incidence and out-of-pocket costs, the wealth of Nigeria’s billionaires will drop in 2018. It is unfair to see a one-third increase since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read also: Despite pandemic, African billionaires will be 15% wealthier in 2021

He said taxing the ultra-rich and large corporations remains important to closing the inequality gap.

“It’s time to destroy the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest somehow ‘drip’ their wealth onto others. It shows that not all ships are raised, only superyachts.

“To achieve a safer and more prosperous society, Nigeria will deliberately reduce inequality, generate more tax revenue from the wealthy, spend more on health, education, agriculture and social protection, and create equitable and inclusive policies. We need to provide targeted and gender-sensitive opportunities for its citizens,” he said.

global concern

Meanwhile, Oxfam said Monday that the top 1% of the world’s top 1% have earned almost two-thirds of the $42 trillion in new wealth created since 2020.

In a new report released on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the organization said this share was almost double the amount earned by the bottom 99% of the world’s population. I’m here.

Billionaire wealth is growing by $2.7 billion a day, and at least 1.7 billion workers are now seeing inflation outstrip wages, according to a report titled ‘Survival of the Richest’ live in the country

The report notes that half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax on their direct descendants and will pass on to their heirs $5 trillion, more than Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). I’m here.