The World Bank estimates that Nigeria’s poor people will hit 95.1 million by the end of 2022.
That’s an additional 5 million people compared to level in 2021.
With real per capita GDP growth being negative in all sectors in 2020, the bank said poverty is projected to have deepened for the current poor, while those households that were just above the poverty line prior to the COVID-19 crisis would be likely to fall into poverty.
BusinessDay highlighted five key trends that are fuelling deepening poverty in Nigeria.
Unemployment rate at six-year high
Nigeria’s unemployment rate increased to 33% in Q4 2020 from 21.8 percent in Q1 2018, indicating that those who are able and want to work are unable to do so, resulting in extreme poverty.
GDP per capita growth rate declining since 2015
The amount of money earned per person in a country is shown as per capita GDP. Economic growth per person determines a country’s wealth.
Nigeria’s per capita growth rate has been declining for the past five years, falling to -4.57 percent in 2020, meaning that the country has become poorer.
Nigerians earn second lowest average income among peers
With a population of 59.3 million people, South Africa had a per capita income of $5,757, less than three times that of Nigeria. Nigeria, with a population of 200 million people, had a Gdp per capita income of $2,097.1
Read also: Picking up the pace of poverty reduction in Nigeria
Consistent increase in inflation rate
The cost of living has risen to the point where Nigerians can no longer afford to buy as much as they could in past years, as the cost of living continues to rise year after year.
As of 2020, inflation has increased to 12.3 percent compared to more than a quarter of 2014, 8.7 percent.
Nigeria’s poorest states are mostly northern
Illustrating the poverty levels of the top 10 poor states in the federation, Nigeria, a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse federation with 36 autonomous states. Taraba state has the highest poverty rate at 86.9%.
