Subsidy removal: 101million Nigerians may become poor

The World Bank has said that over a hundred million Nigerians are at risk of becoming poor due to high cost of goods and services accessioned by the removal of petrol subsidy.

The Washington-based lender disclosed during the launch of its June 2023 edition of the Nigeria Development Update in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to the bank, an estimated four million people were pushed into poverty between January and May 2023 adding that Nigeria has one of the highest inflation rates in the world.

The global bank noted that about 7.1 million Nigerians would become poor if the federal government failed to compensate or provide them with palliatives following the removal of fuel subsidy.

It said 89.8 million Nigerian were poor as of the beginning of 2023 while four million joined the ranks between January and May this year, raising the figure to 93.8 million.

Based on this, the bank said the number of poor Nigerians will rise to 100.9 million.

“Consumer price inflation has surged and is currently one of the highest globally, which is related to Nigeria’s fiscal imbalance and points to the urgency of reform efforts. Inflation in Nigeria has been high for many years due to structural factors, but it escalated in 2022, to the point where consumer prices increased at their fastest pace for 17 years,” the bank said.

Politics Nigeria recalls that the National Bureau of Statistics recently disclosed that the country’s inflation rate rose to 22.41 percent in May — the highest in about 19 years.

The country’s data body further revealled, through its National Multidimensional Poverty Index report, that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor and lacked access to health, education, living standards, employment, and security.