The World Bank has revealed that Nigeria would need to spend N3.7 trillion to end the country’s rising rate of poverty.
This was noted by the financial institution in its synthesis report for the Nigeria Country Economic Memorandum: Charting a New Course, which was released earlier this month.
The World Bank also pointed out that the N3.7 trillion is less than what Nigeria already pays on fuel subsidies each year.
The report read in part, “Nigeria has the potential and resources to accelerate growth and reduce poverty. In a context of weakened economic growth, widespread poverty, deepening inequality, and political turbulence, realising the government’s ambition of lifting roughly 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030 is challenging.
“For instance, the poverty gap index—a measure of the minimum cost of eliminating poverty if transfers were perfectly targeted—shows that eliminating poverty in Nigeria would cost almost N3.7tn per year (World Bank, 2022c), lower than the amount the country currently spends on petrol subsidies. Removing distortions will allow Nigerians to benefit from their country’s immense wealth.”
The World Bank reported that between January and October of this year, inflation drove five million Nigerians into poverty in its recently issued Nigeria Development Update.
133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ most current study on the national multidimensional poverty index.
According to the report, 63% of Nigerians live in poverty as a result of limited access to security, job, living conditions, and education.
The government’s ambition to bring 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years is thwarted by the rising poverty.
