Nigeria has 89 million poor people, second-highest in the world — Yemi Kale
Ex-NBS chief says country now ranks second globally for number of poor people, warns that hardship reflects years of failed policies.
Nigeria’s economic realities are biting harder, with soaring food prices, fuel costs, and shrinking household incomes leaving millions in despair. Against this backdrop, Yemi Kale, former statistician-general of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has revealed that about 89 million Nigerians, nearly 40 percent of the population, now live below the poverty line.
Kale, who is currently group chief economist at Afreximbank, spoke at The Platform Nigeria’s Independence Day event in Lagos. He warned that Nigeria now has the second-highest number of poor people in the world, surpassed only by India.
“To put this in perspective,” Kale said, “fewer than 20 of the world’s 195 recognised countries even have a population larger than Nigeria’s number of poor alone.”
His remarks hit home at a time when many families are struggling to feed themselves daily, with inflation at record highs and wages stagnating. For ordinary Nigerians, the poverty statistic is not just data but a lived reality of skipped meals, children out of school, and households pushed deeper into debt.
Kale argued that the crisis stems largely from delayed and mismanaged reforms. “Key adjustments, some finally underway, should have begun over a decade ago, when warning signs were already evident,” he noted. “Acting sooner would have softened the impact on households and businesses, sparing the economy years of compounding fiscal and inflationary pressures.”
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Instead, he said, distortive monetary and exchange rate policies dragged on, weakening investor confidence and choking investment, while households bore the brunt through job losses and skyrocketing living costs.
The economist acknowledged that the reforms recently rolled out under the current administration, including fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification, are “painful but necessary,” stressing that there is no credible alternative.
“The challenge,” he said, “is to ensure that the path of reform is as painless, humane, and well-sequenced as possible. Too often in Nigeria, this has been poorly implemented, resulting in avoidable hardships.”
Kale added that the government’s role should not be to shy away from reforms but to sustain them while urgently strengthening social protection measures so that ordinary Nigerians do not collapse under the weight of adjustment.
“The real test,” he concluded, “is whether reforms can move beyond statistics and speeches to truly impact lives, making independence mean the opportunity for every Nigerian to thrive at home.”
