The National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday said more than one in 10 households in Lagos and Rivers reported violating containment measures in order to maintain a living.
The NBS made this known in its impact report of COVID-19 in Kano, Lagos, Rivers and FCT, Abuja, published on Thursday.
The report revealed that the number of people engaged in economic activities in the four states was lower in June/July 2020 than before the COVID-19 crisis, especially in FCT, Abuja, where the share of people working was down by around 14 per cent.
The report reads in part, “More than one in five households in Kano and FCT, Abuja, and more than one in 10 households in Lagos and Rivers reported violating containment measures in order to maintain a living, emphasising the trade-offs households face between earning incomes and protecting their health.
“The coverage of social assistance, in the form of free food, varied dramatically between the four states with 43 per cent of households in Rivers having received food assistance since the start of the pandemic compared with just five per cent of households in Kano (the state with the highest poverty headcount rate of the four); social assistance in cash or in kind was far rarer.”
NBS also observed that food insecurity seems to be prevalent across all four states, but especially in Rivers and FCT Abuja where 79 per cent of households and 72 per cent of households respectively reported having to skip meals since the start of the pandemic.
