Poverty in Africa

This article is about the poverty levels in Sub-Saharan Africa specifically in Congo and Nigeria. Currently the number of Africans living in the extreme poverty in Congo and Nigeria is twenty percent. The trends of the people living in the extreme poverty these areas are projected to reach double if there is not any intervention. According to World Bank living off of less than $1.90 a day is concerned living in extreme poverty. In Sub-Saharan Africa people living in these conditions often share their income with their family so that $1.90 goes to the entire family not even just a single person. Africa is the second largest continent and currently Sub-Saharan Africa holds fifty-seven percent of the world’s extreme poor.

This article is credible because The Wall Street Journal published this piece, this publication has a long standing history of reporting news and being trustworthy. The Wall Street Journal shows both sides to a problem which helps to eliminate bias. In this article there were options from multiple country even ones that disagreed with the overall tone of the piece. Nigeria's information minister had this to say about the statistics provided in this piece “We will prove them wrong.”. He simply dismissed the possibility that Nigeria will be home to such high levels of extreme poverty without explaining how or why. This piece reaches outside the United States even provides stories from young adults living in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja. Betsy McKay the author, is a senior writer for The Wall Street Journal. She has also earned a Pulitzer Prize. The Gates foundation pays for more healthcare in one year than some countries. The numbers provided in this article are based on a report a from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Providing healthcare, educating the poor and giving power to the poor are some of the core values of this non profit. This article was written in September 2018 which is up to date.

I will use this article to provide statistics for my essay. The article is about the trends of extreme poverty and I think that is crucial information to provide. “Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole will be home to 86% of the world’s extreme poor unless action is taken.” this quote demonstrates just how brutal the conditions could become. Also, this article provides a different solution to poverty then awareness. Bill Gates states “We need to invest in the human capital-the health, nutrition, education, agricultural productivity, access to reproductive health tools.”. According to the Gates Foundation the solution is taking care of the people and investing in them not showing people how bad the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa is.

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