A new World Bank report has revealed that Nigeria’s social safety-net programs are failing to reach the citizens who need them most. Despite billions of naira spent annually to reduce hardship, only 44 per cent of total government-funded social benefits actually reach poor Nigerians, according to the report titled “The State of Social Safety Nets in Nigeria”. The findings highlight critical inefficiencies in targeting, funding, and program delivery.
The report shows that while about 56 per cent of social program beneficiaries are classified as poor, they receive just 44 per cent of the total benefits. Experts attribute this imbalance to the way most programs, such as the National Social Safety Nets Programme (NASSP), allocate a fixed amount per household rather than per person. Poorer households, which are typically larger, end up dividing the same benefit among more members, diluting the impact of assistance.
Some programs, such as the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), which targets individuals rather than households, are less affected by this problem. However, the NHGSFP currently covers only pupils in grades one to three and lacks full national coverage, limiting the number of children who can benefit. The report emphasizes that expanding and better targeting such programs could significantly improve their effectiveness.
Nigeria’s social safety-net spending remains far below global and regional standards, the World Bank noted. The country spends only 0.14 per cent of its GDP on social protection, compared with 1.5 per cent globally and 1.1 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa. This underfunding, combined with poor program design, has resulted in almost no measurable impact on poverty, with the national poverty headcount reduced by a mere 0.4 percentage points.
Despite these challenges, the NASSP has shown promise, particularly through its National Social Registry, which identifies and delivers benefits directly to poor households. Among its beneficiaries, the program reduced poverty by 4.3 percentage points and the poverty gap by 4.2 percentage points, nearly 10 times more effective than other safety-net initiatives. The World Bank urges Nigeria to scale up well-targeted programs and secure sustainable funding to achieve meaningful poverty reduction.
source: Punch