The World Bank has predicted a grim future for Nigeria, stating that more Nigerians will be plunged into poverty under President Bola Tinubu’s watch.
In its April 2025 Africa’s Pulse report, the World Bank projected a 3.6 percentage point increase in poverty in Nigeria by 2027, when Tinubu is expected to complete his first tenure.
“Poverty in resource-rich, fragile countries (which include large countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria) is expected to increase by 3.6 percentage points over 2022–27, being the only group in the region with increasing poverty rates,” the report stated.
The World Bank explained that its projection “follows a well-established pattern, whereby resource wealth combined with fragility or conflict is associated with the highest poverty rates—an average poverty rate of 46 percent in 2024, 13 percentage points above non-fragile, resource-rich countries.”
According to the World Bank, Nigeria is home to the highest number of extremely poor people in the world.
This comes barely a week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Tinubu’s economic policies are yet to yield tangible benefits for Nigerians, as poverty and food insecurity remain widespread.
The IMF said that though reforms introduced by the Tinubu-led government “have put the Nigerian economy in a better position to navigate this external environment,” the country still faces economic uncertainty.
“The outlook is marked by significant uncertainty. Elevated global risk sentiment and lower oil prices impact the Nigerian economy. Looking ahead, macroeconomic policies need to further strengthen buffers and resilience, while creating enabling conditions for private sector-led growth,” the IMF said.
Tinubu’s economic policies—chiefly fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification—have triggered unprecedented economic hardships in Nigeria, as pump prices ballooned from N145 to about N1,000, while a dollar trades for over N1,600.
In August 2024, thousands of Nigerians staged a 10-day nationwide protest against bad governance and hunger. However, Mr Tinubu has repeatedly said that the hardships are a necessary sacrifice for long-term economic recovery.
