The World Bank has said that President Bola Tinubu’s reforms are meant to save Nigeria from falling off the cliff following rising inflation in the country.
According to the bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Ndiame Diop while speaking to newsmen on Friday, the current administration’s reforms are corrective.
This is as the bank just released a report titled ‘The Nigeria Development Update’, stating that over 129 million Nigerians are currently trapped in poverty.
The report was released on Thursday in Abuja as headline inflation rises, forcing millions of Nigerians into hunger.
According to the global financial body, the over 129 million Nigerians represented a sharp rise from 40.1 per cent in 2018 to 56 per cent in 2024.
The World Bank report read, “With growth proving too slow to outpace inflation, poverty has risen sharply. Since 2018, the share of Nigerians living below the national poverty line16 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 COVID-19 pandemic compounded this drop in economic activity. Moreover, growth is failing to outpace inflation: large increases in prices across almost all goods have diminished purchasing power.”
