The United Nations Development Programme on Tuesday released its 2016 Global Human Development Index report, with Nigeria ranked low at 152nd out of the 188 countries surveyed.
The 2016 Human Development Report focuses on those communities that have been left behind, despite development progress over the last 25 years.
It recognises that in most countries, certain groups remain acutely disadvantaged.
These groups, according to the report, include women and girls, rural communities, and persons with disabilities.
The report, which was released in Abuja, saw the country retaining its 152nd position, which it occupied last year, with a human development index of 0.527 out of the possible index figure of one.
There were five categories of rankings based on the index. They were very high human development, which had about 51 countries with Norway, Australia, Switzerland and Germany occupying the top four spots, respectively.
There was also the high human development category, which had countries like Belarus, Oman, Barbados and Uruguay, among others.
In the same vein, the report listed the medium human development countries as Moldova, Botswana, Gabon and Paraguay, among others, while countries like Swaziland, Syria, Angola and Nigeria were listed among low human development countries.
The Economic Adviser, Nigeria and ECOWAS, UNDP, Dr. Ojijo Odhiambo, said that despite Nigeria’s 152nd ranking, the country recorded some improvement in the number of points that made up the index.
He said the reason why Nigeria retained its position was because as the country was making progress, other countries were also improving on their indices.
He, however, stated that there was a need for the country to redouble its effort in making sure that it addressed the factors that were impeding its improvement on the index.
Some of them are the issue of inequality, education, discrimination among women, promotion of social inclusion and accountability, as well as the upholding of human rights.
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