Nigeria’s barely 0.14 per cent budgetary allocation of its Gross Domestic Product on social protection is far below the global average of 1.5 per cent and the Sub-Saharan African average of 1.1 per cent, and has had no effect on poverty, so far. The World Bank, in a new report titled “The State of Social Safety Nets in Nigeria”, obtained on Tuesday, noted that the tiny allocation, which is a combined effect of all existing social protection programmes in the country, the bank warned, has reduced the national poverty headcount by just 0.4 percentage points.
The country’s budgetary allocation to social protection has been low as a percentage of its GDP, averaging around 0.45 per cent between 2010 and 2021, according to ILO data. While specific recent figures vary, data from 2019 showed it at 0.7 per cent of GDP (excluding health), which is significantly lower than regional averages and other countries. Furthermore, actual spending has often been lower than budgeted amounts.
To put it simply, despite government claims of multiple intervention schemes, from conditional cash transfers to school feeding programmes, the needle on poverty has barely moved. The report blames the weak impact on poor design and benefit dilution. While some programmes, like the National Social Safety Nets Programme, disburse a flat amount per household, poorer households are typically larger, meaning the money is stretched among more mouths. For instance, a family of eight in a rural village and a family of three in a semi-urban area may receive the same transfer, even though the former faces deeper hardship.
Other schemes, like the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, which feeds primary school pupils, target individuals instead of households. Yet, they reach only children in grades one to three and cover a limited number of schools.
