With growth proving too slow to outpace inflation, the World Bank has painted a disturbing picture of poverty, revealing that over 129 million people are living below the national poverty line in Nigeria.
Since President Bola Tinubu took over the baton of leadership in May 2023, his administration has implemented harsh reforms to stabilise the nation’s economy, resulting in modest growth, improved fiscal health, and rising foreign exchange reserves.
The report, released on Thursday in Abuja, comes amid widespread public outcry about growing hunger and inflation across the country.
According to the findings, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty surged from 40.1% in 2018 to 56% in 2024.
While underscoring the economic challenges, the report said, “With growth proving too slow to outpace inflation, poverty has risen sharply. Since 2018, the share of Nigerians living below the national poverty line… is estimated to have risen sharply from 40.1 per cent to 56.0 per cent.
“Combined with population growth, this means that some 129 million Nigerians are living in poverty. This stark increase partly reflects Nigeria’s beleaguered growth record. Real GDP per capita has not recovered to the level it was at prior to the oil price-induced recession in 2016.”
Also, the report stressed that the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic worsened Nigeria’s fragile growth trajectory, with inflation eroding purchasing power across various sectors.
“Moreover, growth is failing to outpace inflation: large increases in prices across almost all goods have diminished purchasing power,” it said.
The World Bank further explained that multiple shocks, ranging from insecurity and inflation to policy missteps, have pushed more Nigerians into poverty.
“Over 115 million Nigerians were already estimated to be poor in 2023. Since 2018/19, nearly 35 million more people have fallen into poverty, meaning that more than half of Nigerians (51.1% of the population in 2023) are now estimated to live in poverty,” the report noted.
A comparison of figures from 2023 to 2024 showed that the number of Nigerians in poverty increased from 115 million to 129 million, indicating that an additional 14 million people slipped below the poverty line this year alone.
The report attributed the worsening poverty situation to inflation, poor economic management, and external shocks.
“Several shocks have contributed to this major increase and changing profile of the poor: the COVID-19 recession, natural disasters such as flooding, growing insecurity, the high cost of the demonetization policy in Q1 2023, high inflation, and low economic growth.
“Previous domestic policy missteps compounded the effects of the shocks, particularly rising inflation, eroding the purchasing power, especially of urban households, pushing many into poverty. The government is ramping up the cash transfer programs to support economically insecure households to help weather the crisis,” the report added.