World Bank’s stance on 15-year reform for Nigeria deadly – ActionAid

By Abbas Jimoh

The ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has said the recent statement by the World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Mr. Indermit Gill, at the 30th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES30) in Abuja on socio-economic reform is contradictory and deadly.

The AAN Country Director, Andrew Mamedu, said this Tuesday in Abuja in a statement he personally signed.

Daily Trust reports that Gill urged the President Bola Tinubu led administration to sustain the ongoing reforms despite the hardship on Nigerians, saying Nigeria requires the next 10 to 15 years to establish itself as a leading economic power, in sub-Saharan Africa and the global stage.

Mamedu, however, said that the World Bank chief’s comment urging Nigerian government to sustain its current economic reforms for the next 10-15 years with no clear plans on how it will cater for the people is misguided and insulting to the millions of Nigerians living through unprecedented economic hardship.

“We demand that the government rethinks its blind allegiance to the World Bank’s economic blueprint and starts prioritizing the welfare of its people. The government must reject the idea that growth must come at the expense of human lives and begin to invest meaningfully in local industries, small businesses, and sustainable economic models that empower Nigerians rather than enslave them.

“This call assumes that continuity and persistence in these policies will yield transformative results, but the evidence tells otherwise. While long-term reform is important, the strategies proposed by the World Bank seem disconnected from the immediate socio-economic realities of Nigeria, especially regarding poverty, weak institutional capacity, and structural economic deficiencies,” he said.

The AAN boss said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been deeply involved in Nigeria’s economy for decades, pushing policies that have done far more harm than good.

He said the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) introduced in the late 1980s remains one of the most devastating legacies of this relationship as it crippled the nation’s local industries, especially the textile sector, and opened the floodgates for Nigeria to become heavily dependent on imported goods.

Mamedu said, “Before the SAP, Nigeria’s textile industry was a vibrant hub employing hundreds of thousands of workers. However, with the IMF-driven policies forcing cuts in subsidies, import liberalization, and currency devaluation, Nigeria was pushed to shut down its own production capacity.”

He said the sudden removal of fuel subsidy without robust compensatory mechanisms has further eroded household incomes and other shades of the reforms disproportionately affect Nigeria’s poorest, pushing the country deeper into poverty while global financial institutions and foreign investors reap the benefits of Nigeria’s open economy.

“It is not only unacceptable but inhumane to ask Nigerians to endure 15 more years of suffering in the name of reforms that have historically failed us. Millions of Nigerians can barely afford food, fuel, or basic services today. Asking them to wait for over a decade for ‘things to get better’ is an affront to their dignity and a reckless gamble with the nation’s future.

“The question is, how many Nigerians will be alive till then to reap the benefits of this reforms, what does the future hold for our children who are currently feeling the brunt of the hardship, will there still be hope for them in 15 years’ time?”