Omega Ukama 
EXTREME poverty in Zimbabwe rose from 22 percent in 2012 to 29 percent in 2017, and is likely to have risen further to as much as 38 percent in 2019, according to the country’s statistics agency.
The reports show that extreme poverty headcount is highest in Mashonaland Central Province with 49,5 percent, followed by Matabeleland North province with 45,1 percent.
The Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (Zimstat) this week presented the figures following the launch of the Poverty Income and Consumption Expenditure Surveys conducted between January 2017 and May 2019.
“Rural poverty is much higher than urban poverty… over this same period, rural poverty rose from 43 percent to 51 percent,” Zimstat said in a statement accompanying the reports.
“Poor households are characterised by large families, high dependency, and, on average, older heads of households.
“Male-headed households are somewhat poorer than female-headed households.
“However, divorced or widowed female-headed households are much poorer than divorced widowed male headed households,” the agency said.
The reports show that extreme poverty headcount is highest in Mashonaland Central Province with 49,5 percent, followed by Matabeleland North province with 45,1 percent.
According to the survey, the lowest extreme poverty is found in Bulawayo (one percent) and Harare Province with 5,2 percent.
The reports also show that extreme poverty in Zimbabwe is most common among those in the informal sector.
“In 2019, 46 percent of the extremely poor were self-employed in the farming sector, followed by 36 percent who were not in the labour force.
“Seven percent of the extremely poor were self-employed in the non-farm sector, followed by casual workers (five percent) and salaried employees, also five percent,” said Zimstat.
The reports further showed that the country’s informal sector held steady between 2012 and 2017.
According to the results of the survey, 63,49 percent of the country’s “economically active” population was employed in the informal sector by 2017, up from 61,44 percent in 2012.
This comes as the demise of the struggling economy’s industry has given rise to informal economic activity.
According to a recent International Monetary Fund working paper, Zimbabwe has Africa’s largest grey economy, accounting for about 61 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Meanwhile, Zimstat said it found out that in April and May 2019 “about a quarter of people who were sick were unable to obtain medicine they needed, mostly because it was unavailable or unaffordable.
The surveys were conducted with technical assistance and financial assistance from the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP and the African Development Bank.
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