Multidimensional Poverty: Daily Trust’s Economists Offer Free Advice To Tinubu
The Daily Trust Board of Economists has offered free advice to the Nigerian government on how to address issues of insecurity, economic stagnation and multidimensional poverty stunting the country.
The advice is contained in a communique issued by the Board, which was inaugurated on Saturday, August 30, 2025, at the corporate office of Media Trust Limited in Abuja,
The communique signed by the board Chairman, Dr. Shehu Yahaya and other members, noted that between 2022 when the National Bureau of Statistics released the multidimensional poverty report, and now, more Nigerians have been plunged into poverty.
The Board recalled that the 2022 NBS report had indicated that 63% of Nigerians were multidimensionally poor.
At the time of the report, that translated to approximately 133 million Nigerians ravaged by poverty and lacking access to necessities such as adequate income, healthcare, education, and sanitation.
MPI dimensions and indicators are health, which measures nutrition and child mortality; education, measuring school attendance, and years of schooling; living standards, covering cooking fuel, sanitation, clean drinking water, electricity, housing, ownership of basic assets, and work and shocks, which covers unemployment, underemployment, and exposure to shocks.
NBS reported an MPI value of 0.257, indicating that poor people experience over a quarter of all possible deprivations. It reported further that 72% of rural people are poor, compared to 42% in urban areas.
It also reported regional disparities in the distribution of the poor in Nigeria, with 65% or 86 million living in the North, while 35% or 47 million lived in the South.
The members argued that given that Multidimensional Poverty measures the degrees of deprivation that individuals suffer in relation to access to certain essentials of life, it would be appropriate to revisit the phenomenon, given the deterioration that has occurred in some relevant macroeconomic indicators between 2022 and 2025.
On infrastructure, the Board of Economists said, “Access to infrastructure facilities relating to Education, Healthcare, and improved living standards is a key plank for determining multidimensional poverty in the country. The Board recognized that the government has engaged in the provision of some large infrastructure projects, which will be beneficial to economic growth in the long run.”
It expressed reservations over project conception, planning and execution, noting that project costs have become too costly.
“The excessive costs of some of the projects may also result in wasteful expenditures that take valuable resources away from investment in education, healthcare, and improved living standards that could directly diminish multidimensional poverty.”
The Board cited the example of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, currently under construction, and noted that it is estimated to cost N15.6 trillion ($10.196 billion), which translates to $14.566 million per kilometer.
In contrast, it cited the Egyptian Government’s proposed 1700 km Highway from the Red Sea to Ndjamena in Chad Republic, estimated to cost $500 million, or approximately $294,117 per kilometer.
It noted that in Zambia, the cost of road construction varies depending on several factors, including design standards, material availability, and labor costs.
The Board recommended that governments at all levels should reduce wasteful expenditure on projects and prioritise the allocation of resources that can have a more direct impact on the drivers of poverty, such as education, healthcare, agriculture and improved living standards.
On security, the Board noted that Nigeria’s security has been negatively impacted by a complex crisis of poverty and the conflict ravaging the Sahel region, which has led to attacks, banditry and kidnapping in countries such as Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.
It noted that the region’s problems are largely driven by multidimensional poverty and international geopolitical interests.
“The crisis in these countries transcends national borders, with the region’s poverty being deeply rooted in historical, social, and political structures that sustain inequality. It said that external factors, including allegations of support for rebel groups and mercenaries, are complicating the crisis,”
The economists said “addressing the socio-economic challenges in the region requires a comprehensive approach that integrates markets, diversifies economies, and redistributes wealth.”
It added that sustainable solution to the crisis in the region must involve local and national efforts and a renewed attention to the creation of a customs union and single market to promote economic development.
The Board equally called for investments in transport corridors, trade networks and infrastructure to facilitate equitable growth.
It added that the Sahel region’s crisis requires a nuanced understanding of its complex dynamics and a multifaceted approach, including discussions, to address its socio-economic challenges.
“The devastating effect of security challenges in the country, its impact on lives and livelihood is so important that it deserves increased prioritization. Many efforts and initiatives have been taken by governments at both federal and local levels to address these problems and, while there have been episodic successes, it is obvious that this has not been sufficient and much more needs to be done.”
On health, the Board reviewed Nigeria’s health sector and noted that it faces significant challenges, including accessibility, affordability, and reliability issues.
The Board observed that despite efforts to improve healthcare outcomes, child mortality rates remain high, while nutrition indicators have stalled. The Board noted that the country’s healthcare system is underfunded, with high (up to 80 percent) out-of-pocket payments, contributing to poverty and crippling levels of household health expenditure.
The Board noted some ongoing reforms that have led to improvements in life expectancy, while improved efforts, including free vaccination programmes and rapid-response systems, have strengthened disease prevention and response.
The Board suggested the entrenchment of a more equitable health financing through a significantly improved public health insurance system for low-income households.
“The country should also pursue primary healthcare reforms to enable the provision of continuous, person-centered care. To further strengthen the nation’s healthcare delivery, the Board suggested increased investment to address the collapse of healthcare infrastructure and the high cost of medical supplies.
“As part of the reforms, Nigeria must make more efforts to address the worsening demographic and basic health indicators, such as maternal and child health, nutrition, immunization coverage, and childhood illnesses (acute respiratory infection, fever, diarrhea, and vaccine-preventable illnesses,” the communique added.
On Agriculture, the Board observed that despite the size of Nigeria’s agriculture sector, the country faces a complex and deeply entrenched food security crisis.
Agriculture, which employs over a third of the workforce and contributes a quarter of GDP, is still dominated by smallholder farmers who lack access to formal education, credit, and modern farming techniques.
It however noted that Climate change, insecurity, and poor infrastructure have exacerbated the situation by disrupting food supplies.
The Board noted further that Nigeria’s economic reforms have had a significant impact on the food system, leading to increased costs and strain on households and farmers.
The higher fuel prices, higher electricity tariffs, currency depreciation, while addressing some other economic challenges, yet have contributed to led to increased domestic food prices, and intensified pressure on an already fragile food system, potentially exacerbating food insecurity in the country.
“To ameliorate the negative impacts on agriculture, the Board recommended improvements on rural roads, market linkages, and storage systems through increased investments. This will among other things address post-harvest losses which account in some cases for up to 50% of output. It also recommended more efforts to control inflation, increase availability of farm inputs, and expand credit to smallholder farmers to make food affordable to Nigerians.
“The Board also wants the government to take steps to stabilize food supply by prioritising irrigation, mechanization, and adopting climate-smart agriculture. Conflicting policies such as incentivizing investments in local rice production and processing and then allowing massive imports of rice should be avoided,” the communique said.
‘Low education quality cause of poverty’
On Education, the Board identified the poor quality of Nigeria’s educational system as one of the factors contributing to multidimensional poverty in the country.
The Board noted the low federal, state and local government expenditure on education, observing that Nigeria’s government expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP is the lowest among its peers, with a high of 0.4% in 2020 and a low of 0.3% in 2022. This is far below the UNESCO-recommended 4-6% of GDP.
Within the period, South Africa led a group that included Ghana, Indonesia, India, Singapore, and China. South Africa had a high of 6.5% and a low of 6.2%, followed by India with a high of 4.6% and a low of 4.0% (China: 4.2% and 4.0%, respectively).
This low expenditure on education is reflected in Nigeria’s low expected years of schooling (10.5 years) and mean years of schooling (7.6 years). These low years of schooling in Nigeria are also reflected in the country’s 0.560 score on the Human Development Index, a measure of a country’s position in health, education, and standard of living as a gauge of the level of human well-being. This is 0.628 for Ghana and Kenya, 0.741 for South Africa, and 0.946 for Singapore,” the board added.
The Board similarly noted that there exist sharp urban/rural and North-South disparities in the educational system, with female primary net attendance around 47% in the North-East/North-West.
Also, the Board noted Nigeria’s literacy rate, which is estimated to be between 69-77%, lagging behind neighboring countries like Ghana, which stands at about 80%. Members drew a correlation between low literacy rate and poverty, noting that education deprivations are a core driver of multidimensional poverty in Nigeria.
The Board further noted that the education sector faces a significant funding gap, with a shortfall of N290 billion in the 2025 budget allocation for teachers’ salaries, a situation it said poses a threat to the quality of learning for millions of students.
On solutions, the Board noted that breaking this cycle of poverty requires sustained increase in education financing, targeted investments in secondary and vocational education, improved efficiency of spending and policy reforms to expand equitable access and improve quality.
Furthermore, the Board called for “The implementation of multilingual educational systems and the adoption of local languages as official languages to promote inclusivity and democratization of knowledge.
The Board reviewed the government’s macroeconomic policies over the last two years, and applauded it for the macroeconomic stability that its policies have yielded, especially in the foreign exchange market.
The Board also complimented the government for some of its policies towards growth, increased revenue mobilization and some targeted support to the poor, among others.
The Board noted that the aggressive monetary policy tightening, resulted in the Monetary Policy Committee raising the Monetary Policy Rate from 18.5% in May 2023 to 27.5% in November 2024, before holding steady in February 2025. While the purpose of this is laudatory, aimed at moderating the inflationary pressure, it has also led to high borrowing costs for MSMEs and agriculture, thus exacerbating poverty conditions.
The Board acknowledged that the fiscal policy stance has resulted in substantial increases in government revenue and spending, but argued that the benefits of these expenditures to the poor and vulnerable are questionable, especially at subnational levels.
It pointed out that while higher fuel prices and electricity tariff reforms have raised costs for the poor, the benefits of reforms like FX unification are still generating inflationary pressures.
To address multidimensional poverty, the Board noted that it is essential to ensure that macroeconomic stabilisation efforts are complemented by visible and well-targeted support at the household level.
It contended that fiscal policy should strike a balance between fiscal consolidation and ongoing social transfers, between large-scale long-term capital investment for growth and pro-poor short and medium-term investments, while sector-specific reforms should be designed to protect the poor.
The Board also pointed out other considerations germane to the effectiveness of economic policies, including the need to embrace fiscal federalism. This, the Board noted, would ensure that subnational governments are engaged as active partners in reducing poverty, through policies like school feeding programs, increasing access to primary healthcare, and improving the quality of basic and secondary education. In this context, the plan to allow local governments direct access to their allocations is a very good one.
It called for transparent credit guarantees especially through the newly established Nigeria Credit Guarantee Company, prioritising inclusive growth alongside monetary stability.
“To reduce the impact of high electricity tariffs on low-income consumers, the Board called for the introduction of lifeline blocks for such households, accelerated metering, and ring-fenced minimum monthly kWh
Also, amid reports of rising cost of CNG, the Board called for prioritisation of fleet conversion on high-poverty corridors.
The Board also called for prioritisation of input logistics, storage, and market access, a guarantee of dry-season irrigation, and creation of an effective subsidy scheme for fertilizers and farm inputs.
In conclusion, the Board called on governments at all levels, to put programs for addressing multidimensional poverty at the centre of fiscal (particularly budget), monetary and structural programs. Human well-being should be the main purpose of governance.
