The World Bank said its estimates show that between 15 million and 20 million Nigerians will join the poverty rank by 2022.
They revealed this on Tuesday at the virtual launch of the 2021 Macroeconomic Outlook of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, a private sector-led think-tank.
Nigeria needs to implement key reforms in order to get the economy out of the current doldrums and achieve sustainable inclusive growth, the World Bank and the Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Dr Doyin Salami, have said.
World Bank Senior Economist, Gloria Joseph-Raji, noted that COVID-19 hit the Nigerian economy very hard as the country experienced in 2020 its deepest recession since the 1980s and the second in five years.
According to her, Nigeria needs to push forward policies that help to improve the business environment and improve the welfare of the average Nigerian.
She said, “We actually consider Nigeria right now to be at a critical junction in the sense that the achievement of its development goal of lifting 100 million people out of poverty by 2030 was already challenging even before COVID-19 struck, and then COVID-19 has made this even more challenging and more urgent.