The World Bank has projected that poverty in Nigeria will rise by 3.6 percentage points between 2022 and 2027.
This forecast was detailed in the World Bank’s Africa Pulse report, released during the ongoing Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, D.C.
According to the report, despite some positive signs in economic activity particularly in Nigeria’s non-oil sector in late 2024, the country’s dependence on natural resources and its fragile state are expected to worsen poverty levels. The findings underscore the urgent need for targeted governance reforms and inclusive economic policies.
The report emphasized that among Sub-Saharan African nations, only resource-rich and fragile countries like Nigeria are projected to experience rising poverty, with Nigeria facing one of the most significant increases.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest extreme poverty rate globally, and a large share of the poor is concentrated in a few countries. About 80 percent of the world’s estimated 695 million extreme poor resided in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024, compared to 8 percent in South Asia, 2% in East Asia and the Pacific, 5 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, and 3 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, half of the 560 million extreme poor in 2024 resided in four countries. Non-resource-rich countries are expected to continue reducing poverty faster than resource-rich countries,” the report stated.
To address this, the World Bank recommends that Nigeria prioritize improved fiscal management and work toward building a more robust fiscal relationship with its citizens.
