With the rising poverty level of Nigerians, the federal government’s social safety net programmes have fallen short of meeting the targeted popr, with the World Bank raising concerns over the inefficiency of the programmes.
In its latest report titled “The State of Social Safety Nets in Nigeria”, the global financial institution disclosed that despite the fact 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.
According to the World Bank, this disparity highlights a significant inequality in benefit distribution, suggesting that Nigeria’s current safety net architecture—though expansive in design—fails to adequately target and sustain its most vulnerable populations.
Metrobusinessnews.com (MBN) reports that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had recently advised the Nigerian government to implement social safety net programs to help citizens cope with the economic hardships resulting from the President’s reforms.
She commended the reforms, such as ending the petrol subsidy and unifying foreign exchange rates, for stabilizing the economy but emphasized the immediate need for support systems for vulnerable Nigerians.
In June, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had expressed concern over Nigeria’s lack of an adequate social safety net to shield vulnerable citizens from the adverse effects of ongoing economic reforms
Consequently, analysts have called for a comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s social protection framework, including the integration of real-time data, improved household targeting, and better coordination among federal and state agencies.
They jaave alao questioned the integrity of 4he daya being used, but government had contimied to implement these programs withoit cosoble bemefoys ro the majority poor.
However, according to the World Bank “While 56 per cent of the beneficiaries are poor, only 44 per cent of the total safety net benefits go to the poor. For each program category … the share of benefits going to the poor is lower than the share of beneficiaries that are poor,” the World Bank stated.
The Bank specifically noted that this inefficiency stems largely from the structure of benefit allocation, which, in most cases, is determined at the household level rather than on an individual basis.
“This inefficiency arises because benefit levels for most programs, including the NASSP cash transfer program, are determined at the household level, but poor people tend to live in larger households. That is, even for well-targeted programs, the same benefit amount is divided over a larger number of people living in poorer households,” the report noted.
The World Bank pointed to the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) as an example of an initiative that targets individuals directly and could mitigate such inefficiencies. However, it noted that the NHGSFP’s limited scope—targeting only children in grades 1 to 3—restricts its impact.
“Programs such as the NHGSFP, which target individuals and not households, should be less affected by these issues. But NHGSFP only benefits children in grades 1 to 3, and does not yet have full coverage, which limits the number of children per household that can benefit from the program,” the World Bank stated.
