Nigeria's COVID-19 outbreak could impoverish 5 million people, World Bank says

ABUJA, June 25 (Reuters) - Nigeria's coronavirus outbreak
may push 5 million people into poverty as it triggers the worst
recession in the African powerhouse since the 1980s, the World
Bank said on Thursday.
The twin shock of the pandemic and a global oil price crash
has pummelled Nigeria, which has Africa's largest economy mainly
because it is the continent's top crude producer.
But Nigeria also has the highest number of people living in
extreme poverty in the world, and has not recovered from another
recession in 2016.
The World Bank forecasts Nigeria's economy will shrink
3.2-7.4% this year, depending on the severity of the COVID-19
outbreak. In a worst case scenario, the recession could continue
into 2021 when the economy could contract 2%, it said.
"Today's unprecedented crisis will require an equally
unprecedented response from the entire Nigerian public sector
(and) private sector to contain the outbreak and protect the
lives and livelihoods of low-income and vulnerable communities,"
the Bank said in a report on Nigeria's economic development.
The 5 million people facing poverty due to COVID-19 come on
top of the 2 million the World Bank had previously projected
would become impoverished, with the pandemic disproportionately
affecting the poor, particularly women.
Overall, 42.5% of Nigerians will be poor - defined as living
on less than $2 a day - as of 2020, the bank said.
Poverty and unemployment have often fuelled violent
insecurity in Nigeria, from militants in the oil-rich Niger
Delta to the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast and
banditry in the northwest. Thousands have been killed.
Coronavirus is also fuelling inflation, while a projected
70% hit to oil revenues could further depress "already low"
government revenues at a time when greater spending is needed to
weather the crisis, said the World Bank.
Nigeria is now in talks with the World Bank and other
multilateral lenders to raise $6.5 billion in funding.