The World Bank Kenya office has said 4 in 10 Kenyans live below poverty line earning less than a dollar a day.

The fresh statistics clarify the confusion  on the income classifications which placed Kenya’s Gross National Income per capita to be within lower middle income threshold.

The bad news is that Kenya does not qualify for concessional funding from the bank.

Said Darietou Gaye World Bank Country director for Kenya “World Bank’s country income classifications are often confused with our operational categories.  Both are based on Atlas GNI per capita measures, but the cut-off thresholds differ.  Currently a country’s GNI per capita must exceed $1,045 to attain lower-middle income status.  But the IDA eligibility cut-off currently stands at a GNI per capita of $1,215.  Kenya’s GNI per capita is now above the lower-middle income threshold, but below the IDA eligibility cut-off.”

He made the remarks during the launch of re-based National Accounts Statistics in Nairobi that provide an updated measure of the size and structure of the Kenyan economy. 

He added, “one of the questions likely to emerge from this launch is whether the results of this re-basing exercise will affect Kenya’s access to the World Bank Group’s finance and knowledge resources.  They will not. That’s the short answer.” Gaye said.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Why Ruto rivals must flee from ghosts of FORD
• 
  How to build resilient sanitation systems as foundation for public health
• 
  Africa's central banks demand global financial system overhaul
• 
  Nutrition and education in focus as Kenya marks World Food Day

“Timely, accurate and relevant official statistics are essential for economic management.  Improvements in data quality, accessibility and dissemination standards have been linked to better governance, higher levels of private investment and reduced borrowing costs in international capital markets,” he said.

The World Bank Group was part of the team among international experts invited to peer review the re-basing exercise.

“The new numbers are credible and they constitute an important improvement in the economic and statistical knowledge base for Kenya,“ Gaye said.

“The World Bank Group has actively supported the development of statistics in Kenya for over a decade, including financing the collection of new source data that underpin the re-basing exercise. “ He added.