The World Bank made a startling revelation that Nigeria’s per-capita income, (PCI), has not improved in the last 40 years as it remained static since 1981.
The World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria Shubham Chaudhuri stated this on Monday at a panel at the ongoing 27th Nigerian Economic Summit, (NES#27), and urged the economy managers to quickly assemble potent strategies to harness the robust potential of the country.
The Summit, themed: “Securing Our Future: The Fierce Urgency of Now” drew economic experts, fiscal and monetary policy stakeholders, academia and more.
In economics, PCI measures the average income earned per person in a given country in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the country’s total income by its total population.
In 1981, according to World Bank data, Nigeria’s PCI was $2,180.2 and $2,097 in 2020, meaning there has been no appreciable change in four decades.
“Nigeria today has real per capita income that was the same as 40 years — in 1981. This means someone whose growth has been stunted”, he said, while describing Nigeria as an individual with the potential to become a star athlete.
Chaudhuri, like other global bodies, advised Nigeria to immediately channel spending on petrol subsidies to infrastructure, education and health care services.
Earlier in her remarks, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed called for a paradigm shift in running the country’s economy through comprehensive and targeted reforms, a reorientation of our national values, and a radical shift in attitudes to taxation and public financial management.
