World Bank: Nigeria’s social safety nets leaving most poor behind

The World Bank has raised concerns over the inefficiency of Nigeria’s social safety net programmes, revealing that while more than half of beneficiaries are poor, a majority of the country’s poor population remains unreached.

In its latest report, “The State of Social Safety Nets in Nigeria,” the Bank 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

“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 report stated.

The Bank explained that this inefficiency largely arises from benefit allocation being determined at the household rather than individual level. “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. Even for well-targeted programmes, the same benefit amount is divided over a larger number of people living in poorer households,” the report noted.

The World Bank highlighted the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) as a model that targets individuals, which could reduce such inefficiencies. However, its limited scope, covering only children in grades 1 to 3, restricts its overall impact. “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 Bank said.

Analysts are calling for a comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s social protection framework, including real-time data integration, improved household targeting, and stronger coordination between federal and state agencies.

The need for robust social safety nets has been highlighted previously by the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) and the IMF, both urging the government to better protect vulnerable Nigerians amid ongoing economic reforms.