Nigerian economic growth has resumed after the COVID-19 shock but is lagging the rest of sub-Saharan Africa , with food inflation, heightened insecurity, and stalled reforms slowing growth and increasing poverty, the World Bank said on Tuesday, June 15.

Presenting its six-monthly update on development in Africa's most populous country, the organization gave a gross domestic product growth forecast for Nigeria of 1.9% in 2021 and 2.1% in 2022, compared with 3.4% this year and 4% next year for sub-Saharan Africa.

Lead economist for Nigeria Marco Hernandez said inflation, especially in food prices, was exacerbating poverty and food insecurity. Food accounted for almost 70% of Nigeria's total increase in inflation over the past year.

He said the COVID-19-induced crisis was expected to push over 11 million Nigerians into poverty by 2022, taking the total number of people classified as poor in the country to over 100 million. The total population is estimated at 200 million.

The World Bank expects the Nigerian inflation rate in 2021 to be 16.5%. The forecast for sub-Saharan Africa, excluding Nigeria, is 5.9%.

Hernandez said increased insecurity across the nation – ranging from mass abductions at schools, kidnappings for ransom, armed conflict between herdsmen and farmers, armed robberies, and various insurgencies – was a drag on growth and job creation.

He said it was critical for the government to maintain reform momentum, but that some important reforms had stalled.

He cited petrol subsidies, which have recently returned after the government had established a market-based pricing mechanism, and electricity tariff reform, an area where planned adjustments to bring prices in line with costs have been paused.

Hernandez said Nigeria had the largest number of people without access to electricity in the world , and that electricity subsidies benefited mainly richer households. Only 22% of the poorest households have access to electricity, while 82% of the richest are able to access power.

https://www.rappler.com/business/world-bank-nigeria-development-update-june-15-2021

arely three days after President Muhammadu Buhari claimed that his regime has lifted over 10 million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years, World Bank Nigeria Development Update says seven million Nigerians plunged below poverty line in 2020.

Mr Buhari, in his Democracy Day speech, said, “in the last two years, we lifted 10.5 million people out of poverty – farmers, small-scale traders, artisans, market women and the like.”

But the World Bank in a statement on its website on Tuesday, however, said about seven million Nigerians dropped below poverty line due to increase in inflation in the country in 2020.

“In 2020 the Nigerian economy experienced a shallower contraction of -1.8% than had been projected at the beginning of the pandemic (-3.2%).

“Although the economy started to grow again, prices are increasing rapidly, severely impacting Nigerian households,” the statement reads in part.

“As of April 2021, the inflation rate was the highest in four years.

Food prices accounted for over 60 per cent of the total increase in inflation.

Rising prices have pushed an estimated seven million Nigerians below the poverty line in 2020 alone.”

Shubham Chaudhuri, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, was quoted in the statement to have said, “While the government has made efforts to reduce the effect of these by advancing long-delayed policy reforms, it is clear that these reforms will have to be sustained and deepened for Nigeria to realize its development potential.”

Earlier in February, a World Bank report had projected that an additional 20 million Nigerians could be impoverished by 2022.

Gloria Joseph-Raji, a senior economist at the Washington-based financial institution, predicts an astronomical surge in Nigeria’s 83 million poverty cycle.

“So, with slower growth and fewer jobs, and then coupled with high inflation, our estimates are that the number of the poor will increase by about 15 to 20 million people by 2022 from the about 83 million people in 2019,” Ms Joseph-Raji said.
https://gazettengr.com/despite-buharis-claims-world-bank-says-7-million-nigerians-became-poor-in-2020/

uptimumOne23:
We are not where we are supposed to be but with this government,it's glaring we moving forward in fast pace from where we use to be.

Nigeria will get there soon in a blink of an eye

dododawa1:
Nairaland and bad news

NwaNimo1:
Buharism.....

[img]https://media1./images/94ec8e77f201109a234ae494b82bb514/tenor.gif?itemid=4988274[/img]


A.frica's

P.overty

C.apital

uptimumOne23:
We are not where we are supposed to be but with this government,it's glaring we moving forward in fast pace from where we use to be.

Nigeria will get there soon in a blink of an eye

Dissap:
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Fucking irritating creatures with no sense at all!
Either stay out of their way or you fùck em real hard like a Cholo!
This is what the white guys are doing to them, because they know that they ain't worth the effort!
Damn it!

uptimumOne23:
We are not where we are supposed to be but with this government,it's glaring we moving forward in fast pace from where we use to be.

Nigeria will get there soon in a blink of an eye

uptimumOne23:
We are not where we are supposed to be but with this government,it's glaring we moving forward in fast pace from where we use to be.

Nigeria will get there soon in a blink of an eye

uptimumOne23:
We are not where we are supposed to be but with this government,it's glaring we moving forward in fast pace from where we use to be.

Nigeria will get there soon in a blink of an eye