The World Bank has raised fresh alarm over Nigeria’s deepening poverty crisis, disclosing that an overwhelming 75.5 percent of the rural population now lives below the poverty line.

The figure, released in its April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief, underscores what has become a structural and worsening problem—growing inequality, stagnating incomes, and a widening gap between economic plans and lived realities.

While urban poverty remains troubling, with 41.3 percent of the population living under the international poverty threshold, rural areas appear to be bearing a disproportionate share of the burden. The numbers suggest a country increasingly split between two economic realities: one in its cities, and a more dire one in its villages, where subsistence farming remains the main source of livelihood.

According to the report, Nigeria’s rural poor are caught in a spiral of hardship made worse by economic shocks, rising insecurity, and the long shadow of inflation. The latest estimates show over 54 percent of Nigerians are now poor, a sharp rise from the 30.9 percent recorded in the 2018/19 survey—before the COVID-19 pandemic and the series of economic crises that followed.

The report draws on data from the National Bureau of Statistics, reflecting pre-pandemic poverty levels, but notes that the country’s condition has deteriorated sharply since then. Analysts point to a string of economic missteps—subsidy removals, a botched currency reform, and stagnant productivity, as key contributors to this trend.

In its breakdown, the Bank painted a grim geographic picture. Northern Nigeria, for instance, had a poverty rate of 46.5 percent in 2018/19, compared to 13.5 percent in the South. The inequality is underlined in Nigeria’s Gini index, estimated at 35.1, revealing that wealth and opportunities are unevenly distributed across the country’s six geopolitical zones.

But it’s not just geography that divides Nigeria’s poor. Age, gender, and education have also emerged as defining fault lines. Children under 14 have a poverty rate of 72.5 percent, while 64 percent of females and 63.1 percent of males are considered poor under the lower-middle-income poverty line of $3.65 per day.

Among adults without formal education, a staggering 79.5 percent live in poverty, while the figure drops to 61.9 percent for those with primary schooling. Even a secondary school education offers little protection—half of all adults with that level of education remain poor. Only those with tertiary education show some insulation from hardship, with a 25.4 percent poverty rate, still high but significantly lower than national averages.

Beyond income, the World Bank’s report touches on multidimensional poverty indicators that suggest the situation is even more complex. Nearly one-third of Nigerians survive on less than $2.15 per day. 32.6 percent lack access to basic drinking water, 45.1 percent to proper sanitation, and 39.4 percent to electricity—an indictment of decades of failed infrastructure promises.

Education also remains a bottleneck. 17.6 percent of Nigerian adults have not completed primary education, and nearly 1 in 10 households has at least one school-aged child not enrolled in school, symptomatic of a system where public education continues to suffer from chronic underfunding and poor governance.

The report noted that poverty reduction in Nigeria had stagnated even before COVID-19, with only marginal declines since 2010. In urban areas, the World Bank said, the living standards of the poor have barely improved, while the job market continues to offer little respite.

“Jobs that would allow households to escape poverty are lacking,” it said.

Indeed, this lack of structural transformation, Nigeria’s economy remains deeply tied to oil, has made the country particularly vulnerable. Rural areas, which rely heavily on agriculture, are struggling with low productivity and rising climate threats, which the Bank warns will worsen if urgent reforms aren’t made.

“The limited availability of jobs is symptomatic of an economy beset by structural transformation constraints,” the report stated, “and the continued dependence on oil. In rural areas, livelihoods heavily rely on agricultural activities, often for subsistence, with limited productivity gains and are ill-adapted to mitigate mounting climatic challenges.”

Since the last survey in 2018/19, things have only grown worse. According to World Bank estimates, 42 million more Nigerians have fallen into poverty. While the removal of fuel subsidies and the liberalization of the naira exchange rate were intended to stabilize Nigeria’s macroeconomic environment, they have had an immediate and brutal impact on ordinary Nigerians, whose purchasing power has crumbled under runaway inflation.

“Inflation remains high, dampening consumer demand and continuing to undermine the purchasing power of Nigerians. Labor incomes have not kept up with inflation, pushing many Nigerians, particularly in urban areas, into poverty,” the Bank warned.

Amid this backdrop, the World Bank said Nigeria’s current response efforts, such as temporary cash transfers to 15 million households, are commendable, but insufficient. The urgency now, it says, is to move beyond stopgap measures.

It recommended reforms which include:

• Strengthening Nigeria’s fragmented social protection systems
• Expanding access to education and healthcare
• Investing in infrastructure to improve economic productivity
• And perhaps most critically, diversifying away from oil to foster job creation in other sectors.

Despite successive governments repeatedly pledging to tackle poverty, the situation on the ground reveals a different story. President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms have yet to translate into tangible relief for ordinary Nigerians, while it is believed that spending priorities remain skewed—favoring elite privileges over pro-poor investments.

The World Bank’s findings arrive at a critical juncture for Nigeria, a country with one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, but an economic structure that appears increasingly unfit for purpose. Unless urgent, sweeping reforms are carried out—not just on paper, but through actual implementation, the report suggests that the country risks entrenching a generational cycle of poverty.

President Donald Trump has again signaled a major shift in his approach toward TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform that once faced the brunt of his administration’s national security crackdown.

In a pre-taped interview aired Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said he would protect TikTok and was open to granting the app more time to comply with U.S. divestment requirements.

“Perhaps I shouldn’t say this,” Trump said to host Kristen Welker, “but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok.” Despite no formal deal between TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and a U.S.-based buyer, Trump declared the app “will be protected,” signaling a more conciliatory tone after years of treating the platform as a national security threat.

During his first term, Trump’s administration issued executive orders aimed at banning TikTok, citing the Chinese Communist Party’s potential access to user data as a top concern. The move would later set off legal battles and a broader public debate about data privacy and digital sovereignty. His decision at the time to force a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American entity was blocked by courts, but it established a framework later embraced by his successor.

A Surprising U-turn

Trump’s newfound fondness for TikTok has left many surprised, with analysts questioning the motivation behind his softened stance, especially considering how aggressively he moved to ban the platform during his first term.

However, the pointer beams at the clear political undercurrents behind the move. During his 2024 campaign, Trump increasingly leaned on the platform’s massive youth audience to amplify his message. TikTok played a significant role in rallying young voters behind him — a campaign effort quietly spearheaded by his youngest son, Barron Trump, who is said to have convinced his father to reconsider his opposition to the app.

While Trump has repeatedly claimed that he “won young people by 36 points,” exit polls reported by CNN after the last election showed the opposite: former Vice President Kamala Harris defeated Trump 54% to 43% among voters aged 18 to 24. Nonetheless, Trump’s heavy presence on the platform during the campaign, alongside influencers and viral content, is credited with helping him close the gap among younger voters.

It’s against this backdrop that many believe Trump’s decision to grant TikTok another 75-day extension, which he announced on April 4, just a day before the previous deadline expired, was politically motivated. It’s the second such extension from the Trump White House, allowing ByteDance more time to divest its American operations in line with legislation passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Another Lifeline for TikTok

The latest extension buys TikTok more time to remain operational in the United States, despite the mounting bipartisan pressure for a full divestment or outright ban. ByteDance has yet to reach a final agreement with any American buyer, but talks are ongoing. Interest has come from high-profile figures including investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary and YouTube creator MrBeast.

Still, some see these repeated delays not as genuine attempts to secure a deal but as strategic maneuvering by Trump himself.

A New Bargaining Chip?

Multiple reports suggest that Trump may be planning to use TikTok as leverage in his ongoing trade tensions with Beijing. In March, he hinted that he could offer China “a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done” — a remark that has only deepened speculation that the app’s future is now caught up in broader geopolitical gamesmanship.

If true, it would mean TikTok is being repurposed from a national security threat into a bargaining chip in a revived trade war — one Trump has long promised to escalate. Supporters of the president argue that this is a smart negotiating tactic, allowing the U.S. to maintain leverage over a tech platform China cares deeply about. However, his critics warn that it undermines the very basis for the original push to ban the app: protecting Americans’ data from foreign surveillance.

Meanwhile, the legal framework for TikTok’s forced divestment remains in place. President Joe Biden signed into law a bill last year mandating that ByteDance sell off TikTok’s U.S. business or risk being banned from American app stores. The Supreme Court upheld the law in January, prompting TikTok to briefly halt access to its app for U.S. users — a move that caused widespread alarm among content creators and influencers.

Trump’s decision to issue back-to-back extensions has effectively defanged the law’s immediate threat, allowing TikTok to continue operating as negotiations drag on. But with political calculations now increasingly intertwined with tech policy, the app’s fate remains uncertain.