Does anyone really believe this ?
According to these stats the average Somali is poorer than Liberians, Sierra Leoneans, Gambians, Chadians and lives with just 64$ a day which literally any Somali knows is just impossible, let me give a few examples :
This video below showcases the average cost of living in Somalia, this is about Hargeisa but it's pretty much the same everywhere.
According to this video the cost of living for a whole family in Hargeisa 2021 :
- Water: $5.35
- Electricity: $18.65
- Food: $41.00
- Internet: $8.00
So monthly expenses for a couple with a single kid in Hargeisa is around 315$ a month.
I asked Chatgpt if it is possible for every family to survive with that GDP per capita and those monthly expenses.
It stated that, it is not possible a country to have a GDP per capita of $771 per year, or $64 per month, while basic monthly expenses for a family start at $316.
To put it into perspective, even if you have 5 people working in the household making 64$/month, that barely scratches the cost of living.
And that's just basic necessities. In the video the guy shows how a bag of snacks/groceries is 5$, and the bus ride to go grab them was 4$. It is impossible for the average Somali to live on 64$ and still fill the many thriving fast-foods and restaurants in the cities. He also showed how he spent around 20$ to go out with his daughter and his wife to buy ice cream at Aden nineteen, a very popular ice cream shop very popular and known in Mogadishu and Hargeisa (went there)
Such a shop couldn't be as successful if everyone wasn't buying, they have multiple shops in Hargeisa went to two of them
Here this lady shows the cost of some essential dairy items at an average corner store in Hargeisa, a single can of powder milk is 18$ which would be impossible if the GDP per capita was 64$ a month.
In the part two she shows how a bag of rice (5kgs) is 7-8$, so a family of 3 would spend a minimum of 21-25$ a month on rice, seeing how most Somali parents have at least two or three children, this figure could rise to 30$ which is roughly half of the monthly GDP per capita. She shows how a box of spaghetti pasta that is a common somali dish cost 11$ per box which is 33$ a month, again half the monthly GDP of 64$.
I've been thinking about this for a while and just this morning I realized that if our per capita was truly 64$/month, you would see, tons of slums filled with poor people all over our cities. After some research and recalling my personal experience in Hargeisa I realized that most people literately live in Middle class homes, in every city of Somalia, I could not find a single slum like in Nairobi, Addis Ababa or even Lagos, reflecting an poverty striken population and a very low GDP per Capita.
According to these stats the average Somali is poorer than Liberians, Sierra Leoneans, Gambians, Chadians and lives with just 64$ a day which literally any Somali knows is just impossible, let me give a few examples :
This video below showcases the average cost of living in Somalia, this is about Hargeisa but it's pretty much the same everywhere.
According to this video the cost of living for a whole family in Hargeisa 2021 :
- Water: $5.35
- Electricity: $18.65
- Food: $41.00
- Internet: $8.00
So monthly expenses for a couple with a single kid in Hargeisa is around 315$ a month.
I asked Chatgpt if it is possible for every family to survive with that GDP per capita and those monthly expenses.
It stated that, it is not possible a country to have a GDP per capita of $771 per year, or $64 per month, while basic monthly expenses for a family start at $316.
To put it into perspective, even if you have 5 people working in the household making 64$/month, that barely scratches the cost of living.
And that's just basic necessities. In the video the guy shows how a bag of snacks/groceries is 5$, and the bus ride to go grab them was 4$. It is impossible for the average Somali to live on 64$ and still fill the many thriving fast-foods and restaurants in the cities. He also showed how he spent around 20$ to go out with his daughter and his wife to buy ice cream at Aden nineteen, a very popular ice cream shop very popular and known in Mogadishu and Hargeisa (went there)
Such a shop couldn't be as successful if everyone wasn't buying, they have multiple shops in Hargeisa went to two of them
Here this lady shows the cost of some essential dairy items at an average corner store in Hargeisa, a single can of powder milk is 18$ which would be impossible if the GDP per capita was 64$ a month.
In the part two she shows how a bag of rice (5kgs) is 7-8$, so a family of 3 would spend a minimum of 21-25$ a month on rice, seeing how most Somali parents have at least two or three children, this figure could rise to 30$ which is roughly half of the monthly GDP per capita. She shows how a box of spaghetti pasta that is a common somali dish cost 11$ per box which is 33$ a month, again half the monthly GDP of 64$.
I've been thinking about this for a while and just this morning I realized that if our per capita was truly 64$/month, you would see, tons of slums filled with poor people all over our cities. After some research and recalling my personal experience in Hargeisa I realized that most people literately live in Middle class homes, in every city of Somalia, I could not find a single slum like in Nairobi, Addis Ababa or even Lagos, reflecting an poverty striken population and a very low GDP per Capita.
