Poor resource management behind Nigeria’s poverty woes — IMPI
The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has attributed Nigeria’s persistent poverty levels to decades of poor management of the nation’s vast resources and the implementation of inappropriate economic policies.
In a policy statement signed by its Chairman, Dr. Omoniyi Akinsiju, the think tank said Nigeria’s poverty crisis was “a self-inflicted economic malady” worsened by the mismanagement of revenues earned during oil boom periods between 1980 and 2015.
According to IMPI, the country’s experience reflected the classic symptoms of the “Dutch disease,” where sudden increases in oil revenue led to distortions that crippled other productive sectors. It said the appreciation of the exchange rate in the 1980s undermined local industries and turned Nigeria from an exporter of agricultural produce to a net importer of food.
The group also blamed “the Nigerian disease,” a mass drift of labour from rural to urban areas, for crippling agriculture and deepening rural poverty. It said misguided agricultural policies, such as the construction of incomplete irrigation dams and poorly targeted subsidies, benefited wealthy farmers while impoverishing smallholders.
IMPI noted that the government’s heavy but inefficient investments during the oil boom years created few jobs and did little to boost productivity. It added that real wages declined steadily from 1976 to 1994 as the labour force outpaced job opportunities, leaving many Nigerians vulnerable to poverty.
The organisation said the collapse of oil prices in 1982 worsened inflation, exchange rate instability, and the rise of parallel markets, marking the beginning of Nigeria’s economic decline. It added that the government’s failure to build safety nets for the poor allowed more citizens to fall below the poverty line despite years of positive GDP growth.
Despite this, IMPI expressed optimism that President Bola Tinubu’s ongoing social and economic programmes could reverse the trend and counter the World Bank’s projection that 139 million Nigerians may fall into poverty by the end of 2025.
The group cited initiatives such as subsidised dialysis, agricultural loans, an expanded Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, a ₦32,000 monthly pension increase, the Creative Economy Development Fund, vocational skills training, and cash transfers to 15 million vulnerable households as measures capable of reducing multidimensional poverty if effectively implemented.
