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World Bank: Tinubu’s reforms falter as 139 million Nigerians sink into poverty
The World Bank has voiced worries that even with Nigeria’s latest steps toward economic stability, around 139 million people are currently in poverty, cautioning that the nation could squander its progress from reforms if these do not lead to real enhancements in citizens’ daily lives.
Mathew Verghis, the World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, revealed this information on Wednesday in Abuja during the unveiling of the October 2025 Nigeria Development Update, named “From Policy to People: Bringing the Reform Gains Home.”
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This Nigeria Development Update serves as the institution’s twice-yearly key publication, analyzing economic patterns, results from policies, and major obstacles confronting Nigeria.
In his debut presentation at an NDU event since starting his role three months earlier, Verghis praised Nigeria’s courageous changes in currency exchange and fuel subsidy systems, calling them essential building blocks that might alter the nation’s future economic path.
“Over the last two years, Nigeria has commendably implemented bold reforms, notably around the exchange rate and the petrol subsidy. These are the foundations on which the country has the opportunity to build a programme that can transform its economic trajectory,” he said.
Verghis compared the present chance for change to the significant policy changes in nations such as India during the early 1990s, stressing that these infrequent openings need to be grasped firmly to avoid slipping away.
He explained that the changes are beginning to show positive outcomes, with economic expansion accelerating, government income increasing, debt metrics getting better, the currency exchange system steadying, reserves growing, and price rises slowly decreasing.
“These results are exactly what you need to see in a stabilisation phase. These are big achievements, and many countries would envy them,” he noted.
That said, the World Bank’s leader warned that these gains in overall economic health have not yet improved the quality of life for everyday Nigerians.
“Despite these stabilisation gains, many households are still struggling with eroded purchasing power. Poverty, which began to rise in 2019 due to policy missteps and external shocks such as COVID-19, has continued to increase even after the reforms. In 2025, we estimate that 139 million Nigerians live in poverty,” he stated.
This updated number shows a significant jump from the 129 million noted in April 2025 and 87 million in 2023, highlighting the worsening difficulties for families amid continued economic adjustments.
Verghis indicated that the document highlights three vital areas to turn Nigeria’s policy successes into higher living conditions for residents: controlling price increases, making better use of government funds, and broadening safety nets for low-income and at-risk groups.
He stressed that tackling rising food costs should be central to Nigeria’s strategies, alerting that ongoing high prices for essentials might undermine backing for changes and slow down overall recovery.
“Food inflation affects everybody, particularly the poor. Persistent differences between Nigeria’s inflation rate and those of its trading partners will put pressure on the exchange rate and create a vicious cycle. Lower inflation will also allow interest rates to come down and support growth,” he stated.
Although he applauded the Central Bank of Nigeria’s strict, evidence-based approach to money supply and the administration’s careful spending habits, Chaudhuri mentioned that these measures alone have not managed to reduce price surges rapidly.
He advocated for additional foundational changes to fix underlying problems in food supply chains, logistics, and trading mechanisms.
“Monetary and fiscal policies must be complemented by structural reforms aimed specifically at reducing food inflation, which is driven by deep-seated supply and market inefficiencies,” he added.
Additionally, the World Bank pressed Nigeria to bolster its systems for handling public finances so that each unit of currency yields clear developmental results, and to widen the country’s social support programs to shield the most disadvantaged from effects of economic shifts.
The country director affirmed that the World Bank is dedicated to aiding Nigeria’s reform efforts via guidance on policies, expert help, and funding, underlining that achievements will hinge on ongoing determination from leaders and broad conversations.
“The challenge is clear: to translate the gains from the stabilisation reforms into better living standards for all. These are not abstract ideas but practical steps that can turn macro stability into better livelihoods,” he said.
The event for launching the NDU gathered high-level authorities from government, executives from businesses, collaborators in development, advocates from community groups, and journalists for an open discussion on Nigeria’s economic future.
The World Bank pointed out that although Nigeria has advanced in steadying its economy on a broad scale, keeping up the changes and making sure advantages flow to regular people will shape the nation’s enduring achievements.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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