It has been reported over time that Nigeria’s economic growth is witnessing a significant turnaround but this assertion largely remains questionable as both empirical and numerical facts say otherwise.
This, according to experts, implies that beyond face value growth, the government needs to embark on massive economic reforms by employing the best capable hands; more expansionary fiscal and monetary policies need to be put in place to attract investment and the government should be bold enough to embark on massive economic reform through fiscal federalism.
Recall that the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, (ERGP), eventually was unveiled to save the nation from total collapse.
Following a 0.11% increase in GDP in the year 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) declared that Nigeria has finally exited the period of economic recession. As of the second quarter of 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the Nigerian economy has recorded a 5.01 percent growth in real GDP while the economy is projected to grow by 2.9% in the year 2022.
Recently published research works and data from viable sources attests to the fact that a rising GDP does not automatically equate to a better standard of living. For instance, in the aspect of food security, the Nigerian populace still largely faces severe difficulty in meeting their food needs like never before as incessant attacks by Jihadists and bandits have continued to threaten the performance of the agricultural sector.
A Nigeria Living Standard Survey carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS), has revealed that in the last 3 years, many households in Nigeria have been affected by negative life events as more than 37% of the household sector are being exposed to the rising inflation in the food market. While 46.5% of the populace was discovered not to have any coping strategy to curtail the effects of food inflation, 11.7% resorted to reducing their level of food consumption.
The average inflation rate for the year 2021 has risen to about 17%, as against 11.02% in the year 2019. It is also projected that the persistent rise in inflation is not expected to reverse at least not in the short-term, as the Buhari-led administration recently revealed its intention to remove fuel subsidy by the year 2022. This has generated a lot of trepidation for Nigerians, who see the move as an avenue to further worsen the economic situation of the country.
Also, the recent discovery of the Covid-19 Omicron variant is not providing enough evidence that life will get better in the country, as many countries have resorted to closing their borders. Depending on the rate of spread, Nigeria might also follow suit.
In the aspect of poverty reduction, there is no evidence that a rise in the country’s GDP growth has translated to a reduced rate of poverty reduction in Nigeria. For instance, a research report of the World Bank has submitted that over 45% of the Nigerian populace will live in extreme poverty by the year 2022, as against 38% in 2018.
The World Bank has also heightened fears that by the year 2023, the pandemic and population growth would raise the level of poverty to almost a 100million; while another report by Brookings Institutions, estimated that the poverty rate in Nigeria will continue to increase by 6 people every minute.
