High Food Prices Could Make More Nigerians Poor – World Bank

The World Bank has said that the hike in the prices of food across the country could push an additional six million Nigerians into the grasp of poverty while calling government attention to policies that can help the nation in the short term.

The Washington-based global institution stated this in its most recent report titled ‘COVID-19 in Nigeria: Frontline Data and Pathways for Policy’.

The World Bank said in June that the estimated number of Nigerians who were pushed into poverty in 2020 from rising prices alone (regardless of the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic) stood at seven million.

The report uses the Nigeria COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (NLPS) to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human capital, welfare and livelihoods of Nigerian households. The survey shows a successful partnership between Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the data production & methods team resident at the World Bank.

The World Bank also revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought food security in Nigeria’s households under considerable threat.

The report states that the rise in prices seen between June 2020 and June 2021 alone is enough to push another six million Nigerians into poverty, as urban areas are being affected disproportionately.

“The simple simulations suggest that the share of Nigerians living below the national poverty line could have increased from 40.1 percent to 42.8 percent due to the food price inflation witnessed between June 2020 and June 2021,” the report reads.

The report concludes that the inflation in food process would decrease purchasing power and raise poverty across the country, and states that urban areas are being affected disproportionately.

Data presented in the report shows that as at 2018/19, 16 percent of Nigerians in poverty dwelt in urban areas. The data then states that of the roughly six million who would be made poor, about 27 percent would be coming from urban areas.