ActionAid to FG: Set measurable targets for Tinubu’s poverty promise

ActionAid Nigeria has challenged the Federal Government to set clear, time-bound and publicly measurable targets for poverty reduction following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration that Nigeria would “defeat poverty.”

The organisation said while the President’s Independence Day address promised a transition from an “age of reform” to an “age of prosperity,” the success of the administration’s economic policies should ultimately be measured by improvements in the daily lives of Nigerians.

In a statement issued in Abuja, Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Mamedu, said Nigerians should be able to assess the government’s progress through concrete indicators, including household incomes, food security, employment, access to healthcare and education, social protection and community safety.

According to the organisation, the World Bank’s latest assessment estimated that 50.8 per cent of Nigerians, representing about 123 million people, lived in extreme poverty in 2025, while 69.6 per cent lived below the $4.20-a-day poverty line for lower-middle-income countries.

ActionAid also noted that Nigeria recorded positive macroeconomic indicators, with real Gross Domestic Product growing by 4.43 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 3.89 per cent in the first quarter, while headline inflation stood at 15.39 per cent in August.

However, it said the figures must translate into improved living conditions, stressing that economic growth alone could not demonstrate that poverty was being defeated.

The organisation further raised concerns over food insecurity, citing the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s assessment that nearly 36.3 million Nigerians faced severe acute food insecurity during the June-August 2026 lean season, including about 2.1 million people facing emergency levels of food insecurity.

ActionAid said insecurity remained a major obstacle to poverty reduction and agricultural development, particularly where farmers were unable to safely access their farms.

It urged the government to ensure that investments in irrigation, mechanisation, improved seeds, storage, transportation and agricultural infrastructure reached smallholder farmers, especially women farmers, while also strengthening climate-resilient and agroecological farming practices.

Mamedu said the government should measure prosperity not only through economic growth but by determining whether Nigerians could afford nutritious food, secure decent jobs, farm safely and live without fear in their communities.

“The President has made a bold commitment that Nigeria will defeat poverty. Nigerians should now be able to hold the government to that commitment through clear, measurable results,” he said.

“Economic growth matters, but the real evidence of prosperity is whether a family can afford nutritious food, whether a young person can find decent work, whether a woman farmer can cultivate her land safely and profitably, and whether Nigerians can live without fear in their communities.”

He added that if Nigeria was truly entering an “age of prosperity,” the progress should be reflected in “numbers, targets and timelines,” including the number of Nigerians moving out of poverty.

ActionAid therefore, called on the Federal Government to translate the President’s Independence Day commitments into measurable targets for poverty reduction, household incomes, food security, employment, social protection and community safety.