Over 50% of Nigerians, sub-Saharan Africans are multidimensionally poor – World Bank

The World Bank says more than half the people in African countries south of the Sahara, including Nigeria, are living in multidimensional poverty. This comes from their “2024 Key Development Challenges” report, which shows how the world is failing to reduce poverty.

When the World Bank measures poverty, they look at three things: how much money people have (less than $2.15 per person per day), their education, and whether they have basic services like electricity and water.

From their findings, 40% of people in the region face extreme weather events, and nearly everyone there is at high risk from climate impacts.. To help with these problems, the World Bank recently raised $23.7 billion, which will create $100 billion in cheap loans to help 78 countries between 2025 and 2028.

In Nigeria, government statistics from 2022 showed that 133 million people (63% of Nigerians) were living in multidimensional poverty. More poor people live in the North (86 million) than in the South (47 million). Many Nigerians can’t access clean cooking fuel, proper toilets, healthcare, enough food, or decent housing.

Read Also: World Bank removes loan fees to aid vulnerable nations

Looking at the whole world, about 700 million people (8.5% of everyone on Earth) live on less than $2.15 a day. Even more – 3.5 billion people – live on less than $6.85 a day. The World Bank warns that without major changes, it could take decades to end extreme poverty and over 100 years to end poverty for nearly half the world.

They blame several things for this situation: slow economic growth, lasting effects of COVID-19, heavy debt burdens, and conflicts around the world. The World Bank says we need urgent action to fix these problems by 2030, including creating more opportunities for women and young people, dealing with climate change, and getting countries to work together better.

“We are not naïve to the challenge, and this is the beginning of a long journey,” the World Bank said. “We need urgent, collective action to get back on track and achieve our goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity on a liveable planet by 2030.”

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