Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced low economic growth per capita, a very slow decline in poverty incidence, and the number of people living in extreme poverty has been rising steadily. As a…

Johannes Hoogeveen, Johan A. Mistiaen, Haoyu Wu |

Despite waning growth, many Nigerians are working—but working alone is not proving enough to lift them out of poverty because more and better jobs are needed. How are those jobs created, then?

Jonathan Lain, Utz Pape |

Access to finance is a major, long-standing obstacle faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. In 2014, only 6.7% of enterprises reported having a loan or active line of…

Sophie Dong, Andrej Popovic, Michael Wong, Michael Fuchs |

The West African Economic and Monetary Union community, which comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo, is facing a deficit of decent housing of…

Mazen Bouri |

Africa is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty. While many countries were successful in reducing poverty during the years before the pandemic,…

Camilla Holmemo, Christian Bodewig, Robert S. Chase, Suleiman Namara |

Unequal public investment in women and men is perpetuating gender inequality in Nigeria, which continues to take a toll on both Nigerian society and the economy. In the agriculture sector alone,…

Abhilasha Sahay, Amy Geist |

Adolescent girls in Nigeria face disproportionate obstacles in their lives and, in many cases, see their access to education interrupted. Attacks on schools, mass abductions of students, and…

Aisha Garba, Mansir Nasir |

The 4th World Bank Tax Conference exposed the magnitude of the challenge to build equitable tax systems via policies that improve compliance of the very wealthy. This blog highlights a summary of…

Pierre Bachas, Chiara Bronchi, Thiago Scot, Claudia Vargas |

The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the largest global shocks in recent history, but it did not increase extreme poverty in Africa as it was feared it would. The reason may be a combination of things…

Kibrom A. Abay, Nishant Yonzan, Sikandra Kurdi, Kibrom Tafere |

As Nigeria continues its critical work to lead 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030 and manage its demographic transition, building the human capital of women and girls and expanding their…

Julia Vaillant |