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75.5 per cent rural Nigerians living below poverty line – World Bank

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About 75.5 per cent of rural Nigerians are now living below the poverty line, reflecting deepening hardship in the country’s hinterlands, the World Bank, has disclosed.

The disclosure was made in the Bank’s April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief for Nigeria that paints a grim picture of worsening economic hardship, widening inequality, and persistent underdevelopment across much of the nation.

The report stressed that the situation is significantly worse in rural areas, where economic stagnation, high inflation, and insecurity have exacerbated living conditions, while poverty is widespread among urban populations.

According to the report, “Based on the most recent official household survey data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, 30.9 per cent of Nigerians lived below the international extreme poverty line of $2.15 per person per day in 2018/19 before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The report also explained that Nigeria’s enduring regional disparities remained spatially unequal, saying that the poverty rate in northern geopolitical zones was 46.5 per cent in 2018/19, compared with 13.5 per cent for southern ones. Inequality measured by the Gini index was estimated at 35.1 in 2018/19.

Nigeria’s Prosperity Gap — the average factor by which individuals’ incomes must be multiplied to attain a prosperity standard of $25 per day for all — is estimated at 10.2, higher than most peers, despite successive policy interventions, the figures underscore a persistent economic divide across the country.

Children aged 0 to 14 years had a poverty rate of 72.5 per cent, reflecting the scale of deprivation among the youngest segment of the population, as a result of the report’s demographic analysis.

With Nigerians lacking formal education experiencing a poverty rate of 79.5 per cent, it emerges as a significant determinant of poverty, it contrasts with 61.9 per cent for those with primary education and 50.0 per cent for secondary school graduates and only 25.4 per cent of those with tertiary education were considered poor.

The report also drew attention to multidimensional poverty indicators, which further reflect widespread deprivation, stressing that about 30.9 per cent of Nigerians live on less than $2.15 daily, 32.6 per cent lack access to limited-standard drinking water, 45.1 per cent do not have limited-standard sanitation, and 39.4 per cent have no electricity.

The report stated that 17.6 per cent of adults yet to complete primary education, and 9.0 per cent of households reporting at least one school-aged child not enrolled in school as education access remains a challenge.

The report noted that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to reduce extreme poverty had largely stalled, saying that before COVID-19, extreme poverty reduction had almost stagnated, dropping by only half a percentage point annually since 2010.

Living standards of the urban poor are hardly improving, and jobs that would allow households to escape poverty are lacking.

Although the World Bank acknowledged recent economic reforms aimed at stabilising Nigeria’s macroeconomic outlook, it warned that persistently high inflation continues to undermine household purchasing power, particularly in urban areas where incomes have not kept pace with rising costs.

The Bank called for urgent policy action to shield vulnerable groups from inflationary shocks and to drive job creation through more productive economic activities in light of the worsening situation.

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Subject: A cashier at a Kingsway store.

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Location: Lagos, Nigeria.
Date: Circa January 1962.

Photographer/Source: Pix/Michael Ochs Archives.
Significance: The image captures the era of Kingsway Stores, which symbolized modern and cosmopolitan life in West Africa in the early 1960s.
About Kingsway Stores

Origins: The chain began as Lever’s Stores in 1922, evolving through Opobo Stores Ltd before becoming Kingsway Stores Ltd in 1947.

Expansion: The first store in Nigeria opened in Lagos in 1948, followed by others in cities like Freetown, Accra, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt.

Impact: Kingsway Stores represented a modern, western-style shopping experience, with departments for various goods, and were a popular shopping destination for Nigerians.

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TINUBU TO UNVEIL $400M INDIGENOUS CRUDE OIL TERMINAL IN ANDONI, RIVERS STATE.

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President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to commission the $400m Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State on October 8, the first new crude export facility to be built in Nigeria in over 50 years.

The facility, developed by Green Energy International Limited, operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11, Ikuru town, Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, is the first wholly indigenous onshore terminal built in Nigeria. The last such facility, the Forcados Terminal, was commissioned in 1971.

The inauguration is expected to attract top government officials, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and key stakeholders across the oil and gas sector.

The Otakikpo terminal is expected to serve as a lifeline to more than 40 stranded oil fields by providing a reliable evacuation outlet, potentially unlocking millions of barrels of crude previously trapped underground.

With an initial storage capacity of 750,000 barrels, expandable to three million barrels, and a loading capacity of 360,000 barrels per day, the facility is also projected to reduce production costs for indigenous producers significantly.

Chairman and Chief Executive of GEIL, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, described the terminal as a “game-changing national infrastructure.”

“What we have achieved here is not just a storage solution, but a pathway for about 40 stranded oil fields to finally contribute to the economy,” Adegbulugbe said.

The commissioning underscores the Federal Government’s renewed efforts to restore investor confidence in Nigeria’s oil sector, which has struggled with declining production, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and rising operational costs in recent years.

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Ndume calls for labour law review after PENGASSAN-Dangote refinery dispute

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Senator Ali Ndume has asked the National Assembly to review Nigeria’s labour laws after the recent strike by oil and gas workers in protest of Dangote Refinery’s actions.

Speaking to the BBC Hausa Service, Ndume said the three-day strike made life harder for ordinary Nigerians until the Federal Government stepped in to settle the dispute.

“The strike brought unnecessary suffering. The price of petrol rose from ₦890 to ₦900, and people were left struggling. We need to review the labour law and make changes,” he emphasized.

The strike started after PENGASSAN protested the sack of hundred of workers at the refinery which Dangote Refinery insists was part of restructuring to meet its work needs and not because of union activity.

The strike, which began on Monday, September 28, was called off on Wednesday, October 1, after the government intervened. However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said the action reduced crude oil production by 16 percent and caused a 30 percent drop in gas trading.

Ndume argued that while workers’ unions deserve protection, they must not use their power to make Nigerians suffer.“If PENGASSAN felt the refinery treated its members unfairly, it should have gone to court, not cut off fuel supply,” he said.

He also reminded Nigerians that the Dangote Refinery is a private business built with billions of dollars, warning that unions must act responsibly when dealing with it.

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