World Bank Group has called on the Nigerian government to urgently reduce high import tariffs and lift certain import bans as a fast-track measure to ease soaring prices and curb rising poverty. This was made known by the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mathew Verghis, during an interview with Arise TV on Thursday. He warned that inflation remains dangerously high and continues to erode the purchasing power of millions of Nigerians. Verghis said the Bank’s projections show poverty levels in Nigeria may continue rising through 2025 and possibly into 2026 if inflation is not decisively addressed. “The reason we are projecting poverty to continue to rise in 2025, and possibly into 2026, is because inflation remains high enough that it’s undermining household incomes, especially for the poor, because food inflation remains at around 20%,” he said. Verghis stressed that Nigeria’s ongoing economic reforms must be sustained, warning that countries like India and China achieved stability only through decades of consistent reform. However, he emphasized that certain policy actions could produce quicker relief for households.
“Nigeria has high tariffs and, in some cases, import bans on goods consumed by the poor… One way of lowering inflation quickly is to reduce some of these tariffs and take away some of these import bans,” he said, noting their consistency with ECOWAS commitments. On Nigeria’s volatile exchange rate, Verghis cautioned against artificial stabilisation, arguing instead for market-driven alignment. “The best way to keep the Naira stable is to make sure that your exports are increasing and your foreign direct investment is increasing,” he said. He added that stability is not the end goal: “The primary objective is to get growth going, and a stable exchange rate that allows businesses to plan will contribute to that.” Verghis also praised progress in revenue diversification. “Nigeria is now, today, much less dependent on oil revenues than it was before,” he said, attributing this to a more realistic exchange rate and the removal of petrol subsidies. He argued that higher non-oil revenues will allow greater investment in infrastructure and human capital. On Nigeria’s borrowing, he said the outlook is improving. “The debt-to-GDP ratio is now at levels we consider reasonably moderate,” he said. With rising revenues, “the debt-to-revenue ratio is now actually falling for the first time in a long time.”
Still, he cautioned that how borrowed funds are used remains crucial: “If you keep borrowing… and the money gets wasted, then eventually you’ll have a debt problem. The key is that the debt is borrowed and spent wisely.” Recently, the World Bank raised concerns over the inefficiency of Nigeria’s social safety net proammes, revealing that despite more than half of the beneficiaries being poor, the majority of the country’s poor population remains unreached. In its latest report titled “The State of Social Safety Nets in Nigeria”, the global financial institution disclosed that 56 per cent of beneficiaries of government safety net programmes are poor, yet only 44 per cent of the total benefits actually reach poor households.
World Bank urges FG to cut import tariffs to curb inflation
