Nigeria Needs N3.7tn To End Poverty – World Bank
The World Bank has said that it would cost Nigeria N3.7tn to eliminate poverty, which has been on the rise in the country.
This is contained in its synthesis report for Country Economic Memorandum: Charting a New Course, released in December.
The World Bank also noted that the N3.7tn is lower than what Nigeria already spends on petrol subsidies yearly.
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.”
In its newly released Nigeria Development Update, the World Bank had said that inflation pushed five million Nigerians into poverty between January and October this year.
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