Millions of Nigerians are now facing starvation as a result of headline inflation rising, claims the World Bank.

According to World Bank data, more than 129 million Nigerians are living in poverty at the moment.

This was mentioned in the recently published Nigeria Development Update report by the World Bank.

Millions of Nigerians are now facing starvation as a result of headline inflation rising, claims the World Bank.

Due to this scenario, the official proportion of Nigerians living in poverty increased from 40.1% in 2018 to 56% in 2024.

It stated, “Poverty has increased sharply as growth has proven to be too slow to keep up with inflation.” According to estimates, the percentage of Nigerians living below the national poverty line has increased significantly from 40.1% to 56.0% since 2018.

This, together with population increase, indicates that 129 million Nigerians are impoverished. This significant rise is somewhat explained by Nigeria’s troubled development trajectory. The real GDP per capita has not yet returned to its pre-recession level in 2016, which was brought on by rising oil prices.

The country’s top bank also pointed out that having a job does not ensure one is not impoverished.

But having a job doesn’t mean that you can get out of poverty. According to the survey, a lot of employment are neither productive or lucrative enough to support people out of poverty.

The secret to distributing the benefits of development is jobs. Nigeria needs workers who can capitalise on its potential “demographic dividend” because the country’s population is young and expanding.

This decline in economic activity was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, growth is not keeping up with inflation because of significant price increases for practically all items, which have reduced buying power.

It also mentioned how the nation’s level of economic insecurity had increased.

“Many shocks in an environment of extreme economic instability have deepened and expanded poverty,” the statement read. Over 115 million Nigerians were projected to be impoverished in 2023. About 35 million more individuals have entered poverty from 2018–19, bringing the expected number of poor Nigerians to 51.1% of the country’s population in 2023.

According to data from the World Bank, the number of Nigerians living in poverty increased by 14 million this year, from 115 million in 2023 to 129 million in 2024.

It stated, “A number of shocks, including the COVID-19 recession, natural disasters like flooding, rising levels of insecurity, the high cost of the demonetisation policy in Q1 2023, high inflation, and weak economic growth, have contributed to this significant increase and changing profile of the poor.”

The impact of the shocks were exacerbated by earlier domestic policy blunders, notably growing inflation, which reduced buying power, particularly for urban residents, and drove many of them into poverty. The government is expanding its cash transfer programs to help those that are struggling financially get through this crisis.

It also showed that although poverty was still mostly a rural issue, it had greatly increased in metropolitan areas, with 31.3% of urban residents now living in poverty, up from 18% in 2018.

Since Bola Tinubu took office on May 29, 2023, many Nigerians have been complaining about increased hardship under his administration due to the withdrawal of gasoline subsidies and the flotation of foreign currencies.