The level of inequality which has spanned through many economies over the years, has again replicated itself with 10 per cent of world population accounting for 90 per cent of total wealth in 2021, Bismarck Reward, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited has said.
Rewane who quoted Oxfam, said 63 per cent, that is about , $26 trillion of the newly created wealth between 2020 and 2021 was amassed by the top one per cent.
“The next nine per cent had 27 per cent or $11 trillion, while the bottom 90 per cent was left with only 10 per cent or $5 trillion. For every dollar the bottom 90 per cent have gained since 2020, billionaires have gained $1.7 million”, said Rewane in its FDC bi-monthly publication.
As a feasible means of reducing extreme inequality and the wealth of billionaires, Oxfam called for an increase in taxes on the richest one per cent as a well as adoption of other policies such as implementing one-off taxes on excessive profits and wealth.
But taxes on services equally increased, weighing unevenly heavily on the poor population the more.
In Nigeria, there has been an increase in the number of people leaving below the poverty line as well as the number of millionaires in the country.
The report notes that, since the pandemic, the wealth of Nigerian billionaires has increased, but there not corresponding increase in health budget.
‘More than half of the Nigerian population is groping with multidimensional poverty, with millions of children out of school and many lacking access to quality healthcare, education, electricity, maternal and clean water”, said Oxfam.
Rewane said, it feels like 2008/2009 all over again.
“Maybe even worse. From a pandemic to rising geopolitical tensions, bank collapses, aggressive monetary policy tightening and a global economic slowdown, the world has not caught a break since 2020. And neither have Nigerians, as 2023 started off with one of the toughest elections since 1999.
