Poverty in Nigeria is pervasive although the country is rich1 in human and material resources that should translate into better living standards. According to the most recent survey (2004 National Living Standards Survey) presented by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS 2007, about 69 million people were living in poverty, which represents 54.4 percent of the Nigerian population. Since the 1980s, the Nigerian poverty situation has been deteriorating as seen in the figure below.