Many people in Africa struggle to get by on their monthly salary

Countless reports - by the UN, the IMF and the World Bank - have testified that more than half of Africa's 800 million people live in absolute poverty.

The benchmark for living in poverty is taken as having less than $1 a day.

When you translate that US dollar into CFA francs, pula, naira, shilling or cedi - In reality, what does it mean for an African family?

One of the topics that you suggested for us to talk about on BBC Africa Live was how to reduce poverty in Africa.

How far does your money take you? How many jobs do you have to do to get by? How do you cope until the next pay day if your salary doesn't stretch for a month? If you don't have a job, how do you survive?

Join the BBC's Africa Live debate on Wednesday 19 January at 1630 & 1830GMT.

Use the form to send us your comments - some of which will be published below.

If you would like to take part in the discussion, e-mail us with your telephone number, which will not be published.

Your Comments:

Here in Sierra Leone, it is very bad. The recent one-day strike which made the headlines was as a result of poor salary conditions.The employment rate is low and salaries are low. As for me, I am doing a voluntary job,and only God provides....
Murtala, Sierra leone

Our social security system is the extended family, which is fast becoming endangered by modernisation and westernisation. To make matters worse, the politicians in civilian and military uniforms delight in our poverty so that we all worship them for the crumbs that fall off their table!
oyinkro olobio, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Here in Botswana, I am considered a middle income earner - which part of my life sounds middle income! Malebogo Lebotse, Botswana

As a civil servant, I am not allowed to do any other paid work. With a degree and five years experience, my salary is 5000 Pula. From this, I have to pay for accommodation, take care of my parents, and help my six siblings. If there is an emergency, a death or sickness that needs money immediately, I rely on cash lenders who charge up to 50% interest. I want to have a child but I can't because I cannot afford to have one. This is another kind of poverty that cannot be measured by the benchmark of US$1 a day. Here in Botswana, I am considered a middle income earner - which part of my life sounds middle income!
Malebogo Lebotse, Botswana

Today, I am out of the poverty cycle because I added education to my equation. I have acquired knowledge in management and planning, spiced with the grace of God. Sometimes I do extra work within my community which open doors and windows of opportunity. You must reduce unnecessary expenses, such as going out to nightclubs, or anything extra you can get rid of. Work on your budget and get it down to the bare minimum, so you have the money to keep surviving.
Paa George W. D., Accra, Ghana

The wage situation in Africa is not as bad as it seems. In my country Cameroon, the government employs over 60 per cent of the work force. The salaries are adjusted upwards every couple of years, albeit insignificantly. Government workers are reasonably well off. A secondary school teacher earns around 150,000FCFA a month (roughly $400). Depending on the size of his family he can have a good life with that amount. The cost of living is quite low because we grow our own food mostly. The only problem lies in unregulated industries where people are paid less: a taxi driver or domestic servant in Cameroon can earn as little as $20. There are problems, but things are not as bleak as the Western press loves to say.
JP Tanyong, Cameroonian in London, UK

In Africa you are not alone. You have your family all around you. Go to any school and ask the children who pays their fees - the answer is my family, my uncles and my aunts.
Somani Amirali Laval, Quebec Canada

With taxes at a hefty 40% , it's no wonder that the cloud of poverty never leaves our Zambian skies Hazel M Couvaras, Lusaka, Zambia

With taxes at a hefty 40% , it's no wonder that the cloud of poverty never leaves our Zambian skies. And if that were not enough, there is another 17.5% tax on most goods and services, therefore making it virtually impossible to lead a decent life. Forget luxury, think survival! You get what you can and try and stretch it as far as you can, but as always the case, you stretch it too far, it snaps!
Hazel M Couvaras, Lusaka, Zambia

Africa is the richest continent; the only problem is the uneguitable distribution of resources. Those who have power like to keep all the money, while the masses go on being hungry.
Hadison Nfor, Yaounde Cameroon

Africans live by the mercy of God, otherwise what we call our take home pay cannot really take us home. In a country like Nigeria where the minimum wage is 7,500 Naira and with an average family of six, I wonder how l that will take care of them. Little wonder people choose to live by this formula: breakfast, no lunch and a little for dinner with no consideration for the nutritional content of the food. Getting two jobs is almost impossible in Africa.Until there is a change in the economy, system of government and the mentality of the people, poverty will remain a persistent thing.
Alexander Oko, Lagos, Nigeria

The reason why a vast majority of civil servants in Africa still live in poverty is because of unstable "wages." They tend to clamor yearly, if not monthly, for a wage increase. By doing this, they bring about high levels of inflation.Then, they find it difficult to make a good living out of their income. Make the income stable, cut the inflation rate, then the standard of living will improve tremendously.
Victor Nwokocha, New York , USA

The little income that is available in our African countries is badly distributed and does not account for what it was meant for Jean-Paul Muana, Congolese

As I write, In Democratic Republic of Congo, millions of civil servants have not been paid for a number of years! They survive through the informal business sector, where the tax is not controlled or collected. If it is collected, it will end up in someone else's pocket. A friend of mine, a civil servant is on $8 per month salary, he has 5 children it is still a miracle to see him survive! Compared to what the president earns which is an obscene amount. The little income that is available in our African countries is badly distributed and does not account for what it was meant for. Corruption and corrupted leadership, mismanagement, weak judicial system are the source of this permenant suffering of our people.
Jean-Paul Muana, Congolese in UK

Is anyone else tired of governments being mismanaged and controlling others erroneously? How long will it take until people stop allowing themselves to be a victim of circumstance, settling for the staus quo?
Issiah, Somerset, IW

It's really difficult for me to survive now in Cameroon; due to the fact that taxes have increased following the adoption of the 2005 finance law which has been widely criticised. Consequently, commodities and services prices has also increased. Poverty has worsened in my country.It's no longer possibles for me to even do what I could do before.
Mistook, Douala Cameroon

Yes, it is true that more than half of Africa's 800 million people live in absolute poverty. This however did not happen suddenly, but came as a result of external and internal factors beyond Africa, including the activities of the same IMF and the World Bank.
Gregory Umunna Ejiogu, Orlu, Nigerian (studying in Belgium)

Relying on a very low salary is just not the African way Abdulqadir Abdulhameed, Lagos

I'm not too sure about this statistic that says half of Africans are living on less than 1 dollar a day. Sometimes I think world bodies exaggerate these figures. Africans are very creative when it comes to making money. I have not seen a single African who does not talk of business or tries to diversify his or her stream of income. Relying on a very low salary is just not the African way. Take a city like Lagos where I live for example. In my neighborhood every single house has a side business running. Garages are turned into shops, drinking joints, hair salons, call centers etc. What would you call that? Living on Less than a dollar a day?
Abdulqadir Abdulhameed, Lagos-Nigeria

My father used to tell me how they could work for six months without pay which meant he couldn't afford my breakfast. I didn't understand this till I began working as assistant teacher.I worked for almost six months without pay! I'm currently a student in Australia and during my holidays I do a bit of work and unlike at home where employees have to beg to be paid. Worst still workers are paid according to how close they are to the employer. Unless Africans adopt our grand parents' attitudes towards work - employment on merit rather than nepotism, Africans will continue to live on less than $1 a day.
Monyoro Alex, Brisbane- Australia

Let us be frank about wages in African countries, the government can not pay more than what it does. But the government should ensure that corruption is minimised. People should also stop comparing their earnings with America dollars or British pounds. This is because the cost of living in America or Europe is higher than that of these African countries. An African graduate will not mind doing cleaning jobs in America or Europe to make ends meet, but will scoff at doing the same type of job back home in his country. People like that will not tell the truth to relatives about how tough life is abroad!
Alagba Kaycey, New York

Living in a poor country where many are deprived of the normal living conditions, I feel privileged to be paid 100 US dollars a month as an assistant lecturer and librarian in Ethiopia. Being salaried by itself means you've got a job. For me this is adequate considering the income of most of my society. I am optimistic for my country as I am now witnessing people in my country are determined to change their life. Don't also expect too much from the government either since there are things we can do and change by ourselves.
Getaneh, Ghent

A Yoruba adage says, A rich man in the midst of 6 poor family members is himself a poor person Julius Egbeyemi, Halifax, Canada

I send money to my brother in Uganda when I can. It's about $100 U.S. dollars mostly. I send this amount about every three months. We talk a lot and based on our conversations, he uses the money to help with his rent, to upkeep his nieces and nephews who lost their parents to Aids. I was born in the United States and I've never been to Africa. I hope to visit someday.
Stanley Ferguson, USA

A Yoruba adage says, A rich man in the midst of 6 poor family members is himself a poor person. Whatever happens to the eye, affects the rest of the body. It's the communal system of living. It affects almost every African regardless of where they live on the planet, hence the booming Western Union and other money transfer businesses across the globe. Makes you think, eh?
Julius Egbeyemi, Halifax, Canada

Poverty is in the mind.In my country some people drive very expensive cars which I feel is being wasteful when the same money can be used to multiply the economy. These people set standards for others and as such a cycle is created were people's priorities are misplaced and end up in a cycle of poverty. IMF and the World Bank know this and still help nations to destroy themselves by giving loans that are seriously out of this world. You cannot help people by doing for them what they are and should do for themselves.
Chisanga R. Kaziya, Zambia, Lusaka.

A person who can feed himself well with less than a dollar per day is not poor! Tony Izuogu, South Africa

I've always held that the $1 yardstick is not sufficient to judge the poverty level in all of Africa. I spent some time in a Nigerian village where I was born; quite often you didn't need to spend a cent to make a meal. Everything needed to make the meal could be gotten from the farm or garden. Till today, most people in the village don't buy fruits; they just pluck from within their compound, or from any of the several community forests. The story is different in the cities though. There you wouldn't be absolutely wrong to say that $1 is grossly inadequate. The point is, a person who can feed himself well with less than a dollar per day is not--no apologies to the contemporary definition--poor!
Tony Izuogu, South Africa

I am a salary earner in the civil service but I'm also engaged in a small-scale business in Nairobi city. Income from these ventures are quite ok. However the dependent rate is very high in Africa as whole, where the employed cater for the needs of the unemployed, the sick and needy. Poverty is rampant in rural and slums areas because government policies are not pro-poor rather they are pro- foreign investors. As I speak, many hawkers in Nairobi city centre have been displaced in the name of cleaning the city, thus rendering many jobless. Civil servants in Africa get poor pay and making the salary stretch for a month is a pipe dream.
Yussuf Dayib Ali, Nairobi Kenya

It is really quite disgusting to realise that most employed Africans are not paid living wages or salaries. Only the very few lucky workers make a fortune out of the work they do. And for the unemployed, living in hell could be a description of what they pass through in life.
Christian Merenini, Lagos Nigeria

I remember that I once visited my cousin in a poorer part of the country where they all took turns to cook for everybody in the neigbourhood each day because it was cost effective Michel Auguste, Italy

Growing up in the southern part of Cameroon my parents never earned enough money for our education, up keep and life expenses. I remember that solidarity among family members and immediate neigbours helped a lot. Even today, what you cannot afford to buy you simply borrow from the next door neighbour. We used to borrow everything, from household utensils to working tools from neigbours. I remember that I once visited my cousin in a poorer part of the country where they all took turns to cook for everybody in the neigbourhood each day because it was cost effective. We also sometimes bought and retailed fruits in the local market on holidays just to make some extra money for note books and pens that we needed in school. That is how we made it through life in Africa. Most families are still doing so today.
Michel Auguste, Cameroonian in Italy

Working as a journalist and a part time teacher, I earn 15 US dollars per month. I provide for my sister's education as well as transport to school and for my mother too. Our rent every month is 20 US dollars. It is hard for me to make ends meet so I always borrow to make up the difference and this happens all year round. I'm always in debt but when I look around me I see others who are worse off and thank God for what I have.
Halima, Hargeisa, Somaliland

If our governments managed their affairs well, we would not have so many dependants Stephen Gitau, USA

Like everyone else, I grew up poor. I started supporting myself with stipend when I started college in Kenya. Even today, I still send money to Kenya for the upkeep of my immediate family, have tried to help relatives establish businesses. I understand only too well how life is having grown up there. But I feel we need a solution to this continued dependency. If our governments managed their affairs well, we would not have so many dependants. There are many that I support simply because there is no work for them to do. What we need is an effective political management, and continued budgetry support to our families back home for those of us who are lucky to earn more abroad.
Stephen Gitau, Kenyan, USA