Majority of poor in Africa reside in rural areas – report

The 2013 Global Monitoring Report of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund has revealed that in Sub-Saharan Africa poverty is concentrated in rural areas where 75 per cent of the poor reside.

It said unlike other regions where the urban poor are concentrated in smaller towns, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the urban poor and poverty are concentrated in the capital and large cities adding that compared to rural areas, urban areas have lower poverty and better access to basic amenities.

The Report, which was made available to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, noted that rural-urban disparities are great.

It said, some factors which exacerbate the challenge of narrowing rural-urban disparities are poverty and access to the basic services, adding that, the rural poor migrate to cities in search for better paying jobs and basic amenities.

The Report said “in 2008, the Region had the highest poverty rates of all regions – 46 per cent of rural compared to 34 per cent of the urban population lived in extreme poverty and for each poor person in an urban area, there were 2.5 as many in rural areas”.

It said primary education and its quality are equally important of reducing poverty saying in 2007, only 57 per cent of the rural compared to 75 per cent of the urban grade 6 students achieved competency in reading.

Again, the report said, only 18 per cent of children in rural in relation to 24 per cent of the urban children achieved competency in mathematics saying urban-rural literacy differentials were as high as 40 per cent.

The Report produced jointly by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, is an annual report card on the world’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.