The Presidency has challenged the latest economic report from the World Bank, which estimated that 139 million Nigerians live in poverty. The government described the figure as “unrealistic” and disconnected from the country’s actual economic conditions. President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, stated on his official X account on Thursday that the poverty statistics need to be “properly contextualised” within the framework of global poverty measurement models.

“While Nigeria values its partnership with the World Bank and appreciates its contributions to policy analysis, the figure quoted must be properly contextualised. It is unrealistic,” Dare said. The Presidency clarified that the figure of 139 million was based on the global poverty line of $2.15 per person per day, established in 2017 using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), and should not be interpreted as an exact count of Nigerians living in poverty.

It pointed out that, when converted to local currency, the $2.15 daily poverty line equals roughly ₦100,000 per month, well above Nigeria’s new minimum wage of ₦70,000. “There must be caution against interpreting the World Bank’s numbers as a literal, real-time headcount. The estimate is derived from the global poverty line of $2.15 per person per day, a benchmark set in 2017 Purchasing Power Parity terms. If converted nominally, that figure equals about $64.5 per month, or nearly N100,000 at today’s exchange rate, well above Nigeria’s new minimum wage of N70,000. Clearly, the measure is an analytical construct, not a direct reflection of local income realities.

“Poverty assessment under PPP methodology uses historical consumption data (Nigeria’s last major survey was in 2018/19) and often overlooks the informal and subsistence economies that sustain millions of households. The government, therefore, regards the figure as a modelled global estimate, not an empirical representation of conditions in 2025. What truly matters is the trajectory, and Nigeria’s is now one of recovery and inclusive reform,” the statement noted.

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