More Nigerians to Sink into Poverty by 2027 – World Bank
The World Bank has raised a fresh alarm, warning that more Nigerians could fall into poverty over the next three years, with the country’s poverty rate expected to rise by 3.6 percentage points by 2027.
This disturbing projection was contained in the latest Africa Pulse report, released during the ongoing Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, DC.
The report singled out Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo as two of the large, resource-rich countries where poverty is expected to worsen significantly.
“Poverty in resource-rich, fragile countries—including large economies like Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo—is projected to increase by 3.6 percentage points between 2022 and 2027,” the report stated.
The World Bank also painted a bleak picture of Sub-Saharan Africa, labeling it as the global epicenter of extreme poverty. As of 2024, the region is home to 80% of the world’s 695 million people living in extreme poverty.
Even more alarming, just four countries—including Nigeria—account for nearly half of the 560 million people in the region living under extreme poverty conditions.
In contrast, other parts of the world such as South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa recorded much lower figures.
According to the World Bank, the growing poverty in Nigeria and similar nations is being driven by economic instability, heavy reliance on oil, and fragile fiscal structures. Meanwhile, countries that are not rich in natural resources appear to be doing better, thanks to improvements in agriculture and commodity exports.
“This follows a well-established pattern whereby resource wealth, combined with fragility or conflict, leads to the highest poverty rates—averaging 46% in 2024. That’s 13 percentage points higher than in non-fragile, resource-rich countries,” the report explained.
The post More Nigerians to Sink into Poverty by 2027 – World Bank appeared first on Kano Times.
