A new report has predicted an estimated that 11 million Nigerians will fall into poverty as a result of Covid-19 by 2020.
The report states that the category of Nigerians expected to fall into this line are a large share of urban dwellers who depend on service-sector, non-farm business income. “Before the COVID-19 crisis, the poverty rate was forecast to remain virtually unchanged, with the number of poor people set to rise to 90.0 million by 2022 due to natural population growth. Yet the poverty rate is now forecast to rise to 45.2 per cent by 2022, with 100.9 million people living in poverty.”
The report was published by the World Bank under the Nigeria Development Update (NDU), which is a report series produced twice a year. The NDU assesses recent economic and social developments and prospects in Nigeria and places these in a longer-term and global context.
According to the report titled, ‘Rising to the Challenge: Nigeria’s Covid-19 Response’,
“Simulations suggest that 10.9 million Nigerians may fall into poverty due to the COVID- 19 crisis, a large share of whom are set to be urban dwellers who depend on service- sector, non-farm business income. Before the COVID-19 crisis, the poverty rate was forecast to remain virtually unchanged, with the number of poor people set to rise to
90.0 million by 2022 due to natural population growth.
“While poverty has traditionally been concentrated among rural households dependent on agriculture, more than one-third of those falling into poverty due to the COVID-19 crisis are projected to be urban residents, around one-third are projected to live in households whose heads work in services, and almost half are projected to live in
households whose heads work in nonfarm enterprises.
“Social protection program coverage has remained low during the COVID-19 crisis. Between mid-March and July 2020, just 4.9 per cent of households had received assistance in the form of cash from any institution—including the government—and 3.6 per cent had received in-kind (non-food) assistance. While food assistance was more common, having been received by 23 per cent of households over the same period,
such transfers are more likely to be received by non-poor households.
