Key facts: Nigeria
Last updated: June 2008
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- Population:
144.7 million (World Bank (WB), 2006).
- Average life expectancy:
46.8 years (WB, 2006). UK: 78 years (UN
Statistics Division (UNSD), 2007).
- Average per capita income:
US$843 (International Monetary Fund (IMF),
2006). UK: US$69,560 (£37,600) (World Bank
development data, 2005).
- Gross national income (GNI):
US$101 billion (WB, 2006).
- Average annual growth rate:
7.8% between 2004 and 2007 (IMF, 2008).
- Percentage of people not meeting
daily food needs: 34% cannot attain
sufficient calories even if they spend all
their money on food (Nigeria Living
Standards Survey, 2004).
- Women dying in childbirth:
800 per 100,000 live births (UNSD, 2000).
UK: 13 per 100,000 (UNSD, 2007).
- Children dying before age 5:
201 per 1,000 live births (Nigeria
Demographic and Health Survey, 2003). UK: 6
per 1,000 (UNSD, 2005).
- Percentage of children receiving primary school
education: 60-80% (estimate) (UNESCO/EFA, 2008).
- Percentage of people aged 15-49
living with HIV/AIDS: 4.4% (Federal
Ministry of Health, Nigeria, 2005). UK: 0.2%
(UNSD, 2005).
- Percentage of people with access to
safe, clean water: 48% (UNICEF,
2004).
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DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Nigeria
Making aid effective | Governance
| Health | HIV/AIDS | Education |
Trade and growth
| Millennium Development Goals
The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy
(NEEDS) was launched in May 2004 as Nigeria’s home-grown growth and
poverty reduction strategy. The country’s 36 states have also
developed State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies
(SEEDS). NEEDS and SEEDS work to achieve growth, better service
delivery, reform of government institutions and the political
system, and transformation of values to overcome corruption and
inefficiency. DFID’s assistance in Nigeria is focused on supporting
the Nigerian government’s efforts through NEEDS and SEEDS.
With the World Bank, we work predominantly with a number of ‘lead’
states, selected on the basis of their governments’ commitment to
development and improved governance and their levels of poverty and
need. These lead states are Kano and Kaduna, Enugu, Lagos, and Cross
River.
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Poor governance is a cause of poverty. People suffer when governments don’t allow participation in political life, provide access to justice, deliver adequate public services or control corruption. Working with government to improve the way public resources are used is an important part of DFID’s assistance to Nigeria.
- In October 2005, with the UK’s assistance, Nigeria agreed
the largest-ever debt-relief package for sub-Saharan Africa,
which saves it US$1 billion a year. With DFID’s support, the
Nigerian government created a system for monitoring debt relief
gains, to make sure that they are spent on poverty reduction. In
2006, these gains resulted in the retraining of 145,000 teachers
and the recruitment of 40,000 new ones.
- We have provided technical assistance to the Nigerian Budget
Office to improve budget systems and to link spending more
closely to poverty reduction. Our assistance in 2006 helped the
government to identify savings of about £850 million, which will
be invested in roads and power to support economic growth.
The UK has a long-standing policy of working with Nigeria to build its
capacity in criminal justice and tackling corruption. DFID has supported the
work of the Nigerian government’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
since its inception in 2004. We have enabled it to investigate high-profile
corruption cases, which has led to the imprisonment of the former inspector
general of police and the prosecution of ministers and one state governor.
DFID’s country plan for Nigeria encourages Nigerian-led coalitions to build
support for reform. Our programme Coalitions for Change supports groups
within civil society, the private sector, the media and government that are
working together to change the rules that have led to an entrenched lack of
accountability and poor resource management.
In partnership with the BBC World Service Trust, we have also promoted civic
education, using radio drama and discussion programmes to strengthen civil
society’s demand for better governance.
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Over the past five years, DFID has provided more than £70 million
to the health sector, through a number of projects and programmes.
Through our advocacy and support, the use of emergency obstetric
care in Jigawa State has increased, with the following results:
- complications leading to maternal death fell from 11.6% in
the second half of 2006 to 7.6% in the same period in 2007
- complications that resulted in the deaths of newborns also
dropped significantly, from 48.8% to 23.4% during the same period.
And with DFID support, four times more people are using the
primary health-care facilities in Ekiti State in south-west
Nigeria than before.
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For the last five years, DFID has given £62 million in support of
HIV/AIDS prevention and stigma reduction in Nigeria. Examples of
current projects in this sector include a seven-year national
programme to improve sexual reproductive health among poor and
vulnerable populations through behaviour change and making condom
use more acceptable, and a five-year programme to strengthen the
stewardship role of government at the national level and in six
states.
We also provide 80% of all ‘reproductive health commodities’ - that
is, drugs and supplies for safe motherhood and the prevention and
treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, plus contraceptives and
condoms.
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Over the past five years, DFID has provided over £40 million for
education through two large programmes: Capacity for Universal Basic
Education (CUBE) and the Girls’ Education Project (GEP).
CUBE is focused on capacity building and reform of the management of
the education system at the federal level and in three northern
states.
The goal of the GEP is to achieve Nigeria’s education and health
Millennium Development Goals (see below), particularly the
attainment of gender equity in education. The project has helped to
increase girls’ enrolment by around 15% in the six northern states
covered by the project. A combination of interventions has been
used, including advocacy, community mobilisation and the provision
of educational materials and infrastructure to selected schools.
Such supported communities have seen increases of up to 80% in total
enrolment (boys and girls) since 2005.
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Over the past four decades, Nigeria’s economy has suffered from
instability and poor and inconsistent policies. This, and the
non-transparent and unpredictable application of the legal and
regulatory framework, has stifled private sector development.
Joint DFID/World Bank analysis has identified three constraints to
private sector growth and competitiveness: poor-quality
infrastructure (energy and transport), a hostile business
environment, and low levels of access to finance. The following
DFID/World Bank programmes have been developed to address these:
Infrastructure
- The Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (£13.5 million,
2007-12) helps government improve planning, management,
implementation and maintenance of infrastructure investments and
related regulatory functions, focusing on the power, transport
and water sectors.
Business environment
- The Investment Climate Programme (£6.1 million, 2007-12)
helps in the design of policies to improve the investment
climate and reduce the cost of doing business at state level.
- The Nigeria Growth Challenge Fund (£7.5 million, 2008-13)
will support the private sector, civil society and research
community to engage in effective public-private dialogue with
the government on economic policy/legal and regulatory issues.
Access to finance
- The Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access programme
(£9.2 million, 2007-12) helps improve the access of the poor to
financial services through the reform of legal and regulatory
barriers, data gathering by the financial sector and the
development of innovative financial services and products to
increase market access.
These new programmes build on work focused on improving land
administration and commercial dispute resolution - which has helped
to reduce the number of days to enforce a contract from 730 in 2005
to 457 in 2006 and to register a property from 274 in 2005 to 80 in
2006 - and on supporting rice and soya producers and processors to
increase their productivity and access to markets.
West African states including Nigeria are engaged in difficult
negotiations with the European Community (EC) on Economic
Partnership Agreements (EPAs) covering both trade and development
support. Contributing over half of the region’s gross domestic
product (GDP), Nigeria is key to progress in these areas, but its
trade policy remains protective. With DFID’s help, Nigeria now has a
better understanding of the proposed EPA and is able to engage more
effectively in regional discussions and negotiations with the EC.
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Progress is being made in key areas, particularly in economic and
health-sector reform at the federal level. At current rates of
improvement, however, Nigeria is unlikely to achieve any of the MDGs
by 2015.
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Poverty reduction is still very slow; Nigeria is off-track to meet
the 2015 target.
MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
Enrolment rates are improving but from a very low level. There are
wide regional and gender disparities in children receiving primary
education.
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Of the more than 6 million primary-age children not in school, the
majority are girls. The ratio of girls to boys in education is
improving but too slowly, and regional disparities remain.
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
Infant and child mortality rates actually rose
from, respectively, 81 per 1,000 live births to 86 and from 184 per
1,000 live births to 201.
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
To meet this MDG, Nigeria’s maternal mortality rate should now be
440 per 100,000. However, in some areas, the number of women dying
in childbirth exceeds 1,000 per 100,000.
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
The incidence of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis have all started
to decrease, although reliable data remains an issue.
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
The proportion of the population with access to safe drinking water
dropped from 54% in 2000 to 51% in 2007; the percentage with access
to basic sanitation declined even further, from 43% in 2000 to 14%
in 2007. Deforestation remains extensive and pollution in the Niger
Delta has not improved.
MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Nigeria benefited greatly from the Paris Club debt deal of 2005 and has used debt relief gains to reduce poverty. Trade barriers within the region continue to constrain the export market and the economy.
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