The Nigerian government has released a statement to debunk the poverty report released by the World Bank.
The report which was detailed in the latest economy World Bank report stated that about 139 million Nigerian citizens are currently living in the state of poverty.
Sunday Dare, the Special Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communication, rejected this report, while explaining that the figures must be properly contextualised.
“While Nigeria values its partnership with the World Bank and appreciates its contributions to policy analysis, the figure quoted must be properly contextualised. It is unrealistic. If converted nominally, that figure equals about $64.5 per month, or nearly N100,000 at today’s exchange rate, well above Nigeria’s new minimum wage of N70,000. Clearly, the measure is an analytical construct, not a direct reflection of local income realities. Poverty assessment under PPP methodology uses historical consumption data (Nigeria’s last major survey was in 2018/19) and often overlooks the informal and subsistence economies that sustain millions of households. The government, therefore, regards the figure as a modelled global estimate, not an empirical representation of conditions in 2025. What truly matters is the trajectory, and Nigeria’s is now one of recovery and inclusive reform,” the statement reads.
