Manabi is country’s poorest province

Manabi Province gets most of poor payments

Coastal Manibi Province is the country’s poorest province based on the number of people who receive poverty payments. The payments of $50 a month, started in 1998, go only to citizens in severe need.

In Manabi, which includes the cities of Manta and Portoviejo, 26.8% of the population receive the “poor payment.” Other provinces with the highest rates of payments are Guayas at 16.2% and Pichincha at 12.5%.

The federal government is working to eliminate the payment entirely through other means of financial support to the poor and has reduced the number of people receiving the payment by 390,305 since January 2013.

At one point, in 2005, more than 2 million people received the payment.