ActionAid Nigeria Declares Poverty Crisis, Calls for Emergency National Summit to Reconcile GDP Growth and Reality
Press Release
For Immediate Release
9th October 2025
ActionAid Nigeria Declares Poverty Crisis, Calls for Emergency National Summit to Reconcile GDP Growth and Reality
ActionAid Nigeria is deeply concerned that the country's macroeconomic growth has failed to translate into better living standards for the majority of citizens. Since 1960 when Nigeria got her independence, the Federal budget has climbed increasingly. Between 1999 and 2025 the Nigerian budget has climbed from approximately $3.1billion (exchange rate source: Oanda ₦299billion) to $36billion (exchange rate source Oanda ₦54.9trillion in 2025) yet, poverty rates in the same period have also increased proportionately in Nigeria from 42.7% of a population of 123 million people in 1999 to 61% of 230 million people today.
Speaking in Abuja, the Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Mamedu, noted that “The latest World Bank report reinforces the lived realities of Nigerians, confirming that poverty remains widespread and persistent. Although macroeconomic indicators suggest that Nigeria may be on a path toward recovery with GDP growth rates of between 3.13% and 3.9% in subsequent quarters of 2025, the benefits of such growth have not translated into real improvements in citizens’ livelihoods. Inflation may have eased marginally to 20.12% in August 2025 from 21.88% in July, while food and core inflation have also improved moderately; prices remain painfully high for the average Nigerian.”
ActionAid Nigeria also noted that unemployment dropped from its 2020 peak of 10.85% to 5.05% in 2024, however, this statistical progress has not been felt by ordinary Nigerians. Historical analysis of the minimum wage reveals the dramatic erosion of economic value for the Nigerian worker. The first official, unified National Minimum Wage was established in 1981 at ₦125 per month, which was equivalent to approximately £100 GBP at the prevailing exchange rate (source: OANDA, £1≈₦1.25 in 1981). By contrast, the current national minimum wage of ₦70,000 (officially adopted in 2024/2025) is worth approximately £35.63 GBP today (using the interbank exchange rate of £1≈₦1964.51 NGN). This comparison shows that the official minimum wage has lost nearly two thirds of its value in GBP terms since 1981. This stark disparity shows the failure of current wages to keep pace with cost of living and historical value.
Nigeria’s federal government set an ambitious target to raise the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio to 18% within three years, from the current 10%. The new tax reforms exempt individuals earning below One million naira annually and small businesses with turnovers under fifty million naira from income tax, an important but insufficient step given the scale of fiscal waste and inefficiency in government spending.
Amidst these reforms, Nigeria continues to rely heavily on borrowing. The World Bank is expected to approve $750million in loans to Nigeria for strengthening healthcare, security and building resilient digital infrastructure.
Although the World Bank projects that Nigeria’s public debt-to-GDP ratio will decline for the first time in a decade from 42.9% to 39.8%, the sustainability of such debt amid poor fiscal accountability remains questionable.
Despite these borrowings, Nigeria continues to score low on budget transparency and citizen engagement. Weak accountability mechanisms and disproportionate spending on salaries and debt servicing have constrained the effectiveness of public expenditures. The U.S. Fiscal Transparency Report 2025 indicted Nigeria’s procurement system, citing the country’s failure to disclose key public procurement information. Past reports by the Auditor-General revealed contract fraud and procurement violations amounting to millions of dollars, while illicit financial flows continue to drain an estimated $18billion annually twice the country’s 2025 budget deficit.
Andrew Mamedu also reiterated that, “Nigeria’s economic indicators may suggest growth, but our people are not feeling it. When over half the population lives below the poverty line despite trillions spent in the name of development, it means something is fundamentally broken. Fiscal growth without human progress is failure.” This is why we must have a National Poverty Summit to confront our economic contradictions head-on and begin a national conversation on what truly works for the Nigerian people,”
The Country Director also called out civil society organisations, international NGOs, and local NGOs working on poverty eradication and alleviation, noting that it is an indictment on the sector if poverty continues to rise despite decades of interventions. “If after years of collective effort poverty has deepened, then we must admit that the strategies and approaches we are using are not sufficiently efficient or effective to provide the specific change Nigerians desperately want to see. This is a moment for honest reflection and renewed commitment.”
ActionAid Nigeria therefore recommends that:
- The Nigerian government must urgently convene a National Poverty Summit to move beyond fragmented policies and establish a unified, binding National Action Plan for poverty eradication. This essential emergency response requires immediate, non-negotiable action on Transparency, Accountability, and Data Integrity. This includes: strengthening anti-corruption agencies and overhauling the legal system to guarantee swift asset recovery; granting autonomy to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for independent data; and making the National Social Register publicly accessible for citizen verification. Furthermore, to address the poor at their level, all state governors must be mandated to hold public town halls and declare concrete, localised action plans with clear timelines for the transparent deployment of subventions and relief funds.
- Citizens including Citizens groups like MOT!On must actively hold leaders accountable for public spending and policy outcomes, they must take advantage of FOI Act to track government expenditures, question contracts and mobiise public pressure when government action deviate from public interest. Citizens must reject the notion that their votes or efforts are pointless and instead adopt an aggressive, year-round stance of demanding transparency and accountability from all levels of government.
- International Non-Governmental Organisations should fundamentally review their strategy in addressing poverty issues in Nigeria. Civil society, INGOs, and NGOs must re-examine their approaches to ensure that their interventions include a shift in their approach to aggressively working with the citizenry to hold government accountable and to challenge government impunity and demand concrete results for the poor and excluded.
Signed
Andrew Mamedu
#ENDs
Editors' notes
ActionAid Nigeria, a social justice non-governmental organisation working to eradicate poverty and all forms of injustice in Nigeria. We are an affiliate member of the ActionAid International Federation with a presence in 45 countries. AAN works in solidarity with people living in poverty and exclusion to achieve social justice, gender equality, and poverty eradication towards achieving a just, equitable, and sustainable world in which every person enjoys the right to a life of dignity, freedom from poverty and all forms of oppression.
Contact:
Oluwakemi Akinremi-Segun | Communications Coordinator | ActionAid Nigeria
Tel: +234 (0) 809 207 6904 | +234 (0) 812 888 8826 Email: Oluwakemi.AkinremiSe@actionaid.org | Info.nigeria@actionaid.org