July 22, 2015/IMF By Stacy Carlson, Era Dabla-Norris, Mika Saito, and Yu Shi

Poverty in Nigeria remains high. Despite non-oil- and consumption-led growth, the country trails Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) peers in reducing poverty. Estimates suggest that the poverty rate declined slightly from 35.2 percent in 2009/10 to 33.1 percent in 2012/2013, but with significant variation across states (World Bank, 2014).

The South West region exhibited the lowest poverty rate (around 16 percent), while the poverty rate in the North East region was over 50 percent (Figure 1).1 Moreover, vulnerability to poverty remains high, implying that a minimal shock could easily push those living a little above the poverty line back into poverty.