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 |

COP28 kicks off this week with a growing urgency to increase action and financing to protect people in developing countries from climate extremes. Tune into the World Bank Group’s relevant events…

Sunny Kaplan |

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 |

Most workers in developing countries are in informal employment-- that is, a job that does not come with social security benefits and leaving them with limited means to manage risks to their…

Nadir Mohammed, Roberta Gatti, Marco Ranzani, Gladys Lopez-Acevedo, Nistha Sinha, Adam Elsheikhi |

Gender equality and fair treatment of women and girls is a moral imperative, but global data analytics, evidence and experience clearly demonstrate that including women also fosters economic…

Christopher Stephens |

The recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, has raised the prominence of climate action in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)…

Asif Islam, Dalal Moosa, Federica Saliola |

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 World Bank updated its global poverty lines last month and the number of poor is now significantly different in certain countries and regions. For the EAP region, this changes our view of the…

Rinku Murgai, Hassan Zaman |