Confirms 263m persons to become extremely poor in 2022

Oxfam International has said a new billionaire emerges every 30 hours due to the COVID-19 outbreak, amounting to 573 of them, while 263 million people would become “extremely poor” this year.

The Executive Director, Gabriela Bucher, in a statement, yesterday, in Abuja, noted that as the cost of essential goods rises faster than it has in decades, billionaires in the food and energy sectors are increasing their fortunes by $1 billion every two days.

Citing a report titled, ‘Profiting From Pain,’ she submitted: “For every new billionaire created during the pandemic ­– one in every 30 hours – nearly a million people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022 at nearly the same rate.”

The study was published at the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the exclusive get-together of the global elite in Davos – holds from May 23 to 26 for the first time face-to-face since the advent of the virus, a period during which billionaires have enjoyed a huge boost to their fortunes, she stated.

Bucher added that the world’s billionaires were in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes, observing: “The pandemic, and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have simply put, been a bonanza for them.”

FOR now, decades of progress on extreme poverty are in reverse, with millions of people facing impossible rises in the cost of staying alive.

According to her, the brief shows that 573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours.

“We expect this year that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours,” she remarked

The Oxfam chief went on: “Billionaires’ wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in 23 years combined. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is a three-fold increase (up from 4.4 per cent) in 2000.

“Workers are working harder for less pay and in worse conditions. The super-rich has rigged the system with impunity for decades, and they are now reaping the benefits. They have seized a shocking amount of the world’s wealth as a result of privatisation and monopolies, gutting regulation and workers’ rights, while stashing their cash in tax havens – all with the complicity of governments.”

She lamented that millions of others are skipping meals, turning off the heating, falling behind on bills and wondering what they could possibly do next to survive.

Bucher said across East Africa, one person is likely dying every minute from hunger, adding: “This grotesque inequality is breaking the bonds that hold us together as humanity. It is divisive, corrosive and dangerous. This is inequality that literally kills.”

The Oxfam’s new research also revealed that corporations in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors – where monopolies are especially common – were posting record profits, even as wages barely budge and workers struggle with decades-high prices amid COVID-19.

The fortunes of food and energy billionaires have risen by $453 billion in the last two years (equivalent to $1 billion) every two days. Five of the largest energy companies (BP, Shell, Total Energies, Exxon and Chevron) are together making $2,600 profit every second, and there are now 62 new food billionaires, the survey added.