Following the removal of fuel subsidy and the subsequent floating of Naira by president Tinubu administration, the World Bank has disclosed that about 75.5 per cent of rural Nigerians are now living below the poverty line, reflecting deepening hardship in the country’s hinterlands. The World Bank made the disclosure in its April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief for Nigeria that paints a grim picture of worsening economic hardship, widening inequality, and persistent underdevelopment across much of the nation.
According to the report the situation is considerably worse in rural areas, where economic stagnation, high inflation, and insecurity have exacerbated living conditions, while poverty is widespread among urban populations.
The report detailed that “Based on the most recent official household survey data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, 30.9 per cent of Nigerians lived below the international extreme poverty line of $2.15 per person per day in 2018/19 before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The report added that Nigeria is currently enduring regional disparities and has remained spatially unequal, citing that the poverty rate in northern geopolitical zones was 46.5 per cent in 2018/19, compared with 13.5 per cent for southern counterpart. Inequality measured by the Gini index was estimated at 35.1 in 2018/19.
Nigeria’s Prosperity Gap — the average factor by which individuals’ incomes must be multiplied to attain a prosperity standard of $25 per day for all — is estimated at 10.2, higher than most peers, despite successive policy interventions, the figures underscore a persistent economic divide across the country.
Children aged 0 to 14 years had a poverty rate of 72.5 per cent, reflecting the scale of deprivation among the youngest segment of the population, as a result of the report’s demographic analysis.
Although the country is considered to be lacking formal education experiencing a poverty rate of 79.5 per cent, it emerges as a significant determinant of poverty, it contrasts with 61.9 per cent for those with primary education and 50.0 per cent for secondary school graduates and only 25.4 per cent of those with tertiary education were considered poor.
Analyzing the report, the global bank linked the menace to multidimensional poverty indicators, which further reflect widespread deprivation, stressing that about 30.9 per cent of Nigerians live on less than $2.15 daily, 32.6 per cent lack access to limited-standard drinking water, 45.1 per cent do not have limited-standard sanitation, and 39.4 per cent have no electricity.
The report further stated that about 17.6 per cent of adults in the country are yet to complete primary education, and 9.0 per cent of households reporting at least one school-aged child not enrolled in school as education access remains a challenge.
The report noted that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to reduce extreme poverty had largely stalled, saying that before COVID-19, extreme poverty reduction had almost stagnated, dropping by only half a percentage point annually since 2010.
Living standards of the urban poor are hardly improving, and viable jobs opportunity that would allow households to escape poverty are seriously lacking.
Although the World Bank acknowledged recent economic reforms aimed at stabilizing Nigeria’s macroeconomic outlook, it warned that persistently high inflation continues to erode most household purchasing power, particularly in urban areas where incomes have not kept pace with rising costs.
The Bank is therefore calling on Nigeria for urgent policy action that would shield vulnerable groups from inflationary shocks and to drive job creation through more productive economic activities in light of the worsening situation.