By Tosin Olatokunbo
The number of poor Nigerians will hit 100 million by 2022 due to the impact of the corona virus pandemic, the World Bank has said.
The National Bureau of statistics, NBS figures indicate that over 90 million Nigerians are below poverty level, but the World Bank said the problems will get worse as 11 million Nigerians were expected to fall into poverty due to the COVID-19 crisis.
This was made known by Marco Hernadez, an Economist with the Bank during a virtual meeting held in Abuja, the nation’s capital, on Thursday, tagged ‘Rising to the challenge: Nigeria’s COVID-19 response’.
Hernadez stated that the country’s population is rising astronomically; warning that close to two million Nigerians will fall into extreme poverty by end of the year.
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.”
He identified unemployment as one of the major factors that cause poverty, adding that the economy has been hit hard by COVID 19, the worst in over forty years.
