129milliion Nigerians now trapped in poverty, says World Bank

The World Bank’s latest Nigeria Development Update paints a grim picture of rising poverty levels in Nigeria, revealing that over 129 million citizens now live below the national poverty line.

The report, released on Thursday in Abuja, comes amid widespread public complaints about escalating 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.

Highlighting the economic challenges, the report stated: “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.”

The report emphasized 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 noted.

It further revealed that while poverty remained a rural phenomenon, urban poverty had grown significantly, with 31.3 per cent of urban dwellers now living in poverty, up from 18 per cent in 2018.