As poverty bites harder in Nigeria, the latest official figures showing a spike in the inflation rate to 28.2 per cent in November surprised no one. Across the country; in homes, on the highways and businesses, higher costs of virtually every product and service are biting harder and pushing many deeper into poverty. President Bola Tinubu needs to implement more practical solutions to fend off roaring poverty.

The National Bureau of Statistics’ Consumer Price Index showed inflation rising from 27.3 per cent in October to 28.2 per cent in November. It was the 11th consecutive rise this year, equalling the rate in August 2005.

The rise in food inflation was steeper at 32.84 per cent year-on-year, which is 8.72 per cent higher than the 24.13 per cent food inflation rate recorded in November 2022. Coupled with energy prices, headline inflation is driving more Nigerians into poverty.

NBS’ survey assigned increases in inflation rate in the food and non-alcoholic beverages sector at 14.61 per cent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 4.72 per cent, and transport 1.84 per cent. Food inflation was propelled by increases in the prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables, coffee, tea, and cocoa.

The Central Bank of Nigeria must take firmer, more effective measures to tame inflation and interest rates, and to protect the naira.

Inflation, declares Brookings Institution, is “wreaking vengeance on the world’s poor.” Nigeria is a major victim. Tinubu assumed governance of a country adjudged by the World Bank as host to the second largest population of extremely poor people after India, and with 133 million, representing 63 per cent of the entire population reckoned as ‘multidimensional’ poor by the NBS. But he immediately compounded it by stopping the petrol subsidy and unifying the naira exchange rates.

Otherwise necessary policies, but without preparation for the fallout, they triggered rocketing inflation, battered the naira, and deepened poverty. The World Bank promptly forecast that 7.1 million more Nigerians would slip into poverty. Nigeria accounted for almost 12 per cent of the world’s poor population in 2023, said Statista.

The World Bank said that with sluggish growth and rising inflation, the number of poor persons in Nigeria rose by 24 million between 2018 and 2023 to 104 million. Four million fell into the hole in the first six months of 2023.

Its twin is hunger; UNICEF had projected about 25 million Nigerians to be at risk of hunger this year unless urgent steps were taken. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation forecasts that 26.5 million face acute hunger in 2024.

Tinubu and his team should therefore face the reality; poverty is nearing crisis proportions, and the country is in dire straits, requiring thinking outside the box, self-sacrifice, and dogged implementation of pragmatic policies to tame inflation, stimulate productive activities, create jobs, and reduce poverty.

Wholesale adoption of borrowed policies without simultaneously fixing the institutional deficiencies will only worsen poverty. Experts recommend creative fiscal and monetary policies, coupled with drastic reduction in the cost of governance, and tax reforms. The template of palliatives, including cash distribution, is insufficient.

Funding should instead be directed at MSMEs that account for most enterprises and employment. States and local governments should launch emergency year-round rural infrastructure and autonomous economic programmes. The power sector should be fixed, and the CBN reformed for efficiency.

Poverty, declares the IMF, “is a multidimensional problem that goes beyond economics to include social, political and cultural issues.” Nigeria must restructure its polity into a practical federation to unleash the resources and abilities of the component parts, drive production, innovation and job-creation, and eradicate poverty.

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