Nigeria : Where Has All the Growth Gone?
This policy note will focus on the poverty trends in Nigeria using the National Living Standard Survey (NLSS) 2004 and Harmonized Nigeria Living Standard Survey (HNLSS) 2010 only. In the last decade, Nigeria has enjoyed a stable and sustained growt...
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Format: | Policy Note |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/08/19873872/all-growth-gone-poverty-update-nigeria-policy-note http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19327 |
Summary: | This policy note will focus on the
poverty trends in Nigeria using the National Living Standard
Survey (NLSS) 2004 and Harmonized Nigeria Living Standard
Survey (HNLSS) 2010 only. In the last decade, Nigeria has
enjoyed a stable and sustained growth in a context of
responsible macroeconomic management, economic stability,
democracy, and reform. Nonetheless, results from household
surveys conducted during the same period seem to be at odd
with this particularly positive growth story: poverty
declined only by two percentage points between 2004 and
2010. Poverty levels may be lower and poverty reduction
faster than the official estimates suggest. Simulations and
sensitivity check confirm this hypothesis and call for
additional work to consolidate poverty analysis in Nigeria.
An important step in this direction is increasing the
collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics
regarding data collection and data management. There are,
however, several results from this policy note that seems to
stand on solid ground. First, the historical disparities
between the North and the South (more specifically
South-West) appear to have remained unchanged. Second,
inequality explains part of the limited poverty reduction.
Third, there is evidence of structural changes in the
economy. Labor absorption provides interesting insights.
Larger fractions of the working age population have moved
out of agriculture and joined the self-employed sector. To
make faster progress in poverty reduction, Nigeria needs a
game changing strategy if substantial progress has to be
made in meeting the global goals of reducing extreme poverty
to three percent in 2030. |
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