NATIONAL: Nigeria will have 100 million poor people in 2022 — World Bank

THE  World Bank on Thursday projected a sharp rise in the number of Nigerians that would be plumbing the depths of poverty starting from 2022.

According to the bank there will be an increase from the current 90 million to about 100 million by 2022 in Nigeria.

It ascribed this gloomy projection to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s economy.

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’.

Marcos Hernandez, an economist, 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.

Hernandez, who disclosed this during his presentation, however, noted that the Northern states might be the worst hit.

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.”

Expatiating on what informed the projection, the bank identified having a vulnerable employment,  receiving fewer remittances and being close to the poverty line as some of the factors that would make the projection come to pass.

It said Nigeria’s economy had been hit hard by COVID-19, adding that in 2020, it recorded its deepest quarterly contraction since the 1980s.

The bank said job quality in Nigeria had worsened with more workers engaged in precarious work in the agricultural sector.

In terms of the portfolio size of the bank in Nigeria, the World Bank Country Director, Shubham Chaudhuri, said, “There are actually three different ways of looking at the size of our portfolio.

“The first is how much concessional finance. If you look at how much our board has approved in terms of this financing, at the middle of 2018, is about $7bn.”

He added, “Since then and up till now, they’ve approved another $3bn in terms of financing. So, that brings us to $10bn and then with the $1.5bn that’s being considered in December, it will take it to somewhere around $11.5bn. That’s what the board has approved.”

On the $1.5bn loan which Nigeria is expecting from the World Bank, Chaudhuri said the facility was still in the works.