The number of poor Nigerians have been projected by the World Bank to increase from 90 million to about 100 million by 2022.
This is said to be due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the West African country’s economy.
The World Bank stated that by 2022, about 11 million more Nigerians were expected to fall into poverty due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The World Bank also put the financing portfolio approved by its board for Nigeria at about $11.5bn.
The bank disclosed this during its Nigeria Development Update virtual event, which had the theme ‘Rising to the challenge: Nigeria’s COVID-19 response’.
In his presentation at the event, an economist with the bank, Marco Hernandez, stated that before the COVID-19 pandemic, about two million Nigerians were expected to fall into poverty in 2020 as population growth outpaced economic growth.
He said, “With the COVID-19, the recession is likely to push an additional 6.6 million Nigerians into poverty in 2020, bringing the total newly poor to 8.6 million this year.
“This implies an increase in the total number of poor in Nigeria from about 90 million in 2020 to about 100 million in 2022. Northern states are more likely to be affected.”
