Thread by @bopinion

In recent decades, humanity has experienced a dramatic drop in extreme poverty:

🌍 2000: 1.4 billion people at or below the poverty line
📉 2019: 600 million

The drop is mainly due to growth in China and India. Nigeria has failed to share in the success bloom.bg/2KpzYH5

A decade ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India; today, it has more than both combined: 90 million bloom.bg/2KpzYH5

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s young and fast-growing population is projected by the United Nations to double in size by 2050.

The proportion of Nigerians living in extreme poverty is on course to remain extraordinarily high for the foreseeable future bloom.bg/2KpzYH5

In Nigeria:

💼 Joblessness has more than tripled
🌾 Efforts to spur agriculture have failed
💰 Foreign direct investment has fallen by half since 2010 bloom.bg/2KpzYH5

More than 2 million Nigerians have been displaced by conflict:

- Islamic extremists remain a serious threat
- Violence persists in the oil-rich Niger Delta
- Climate change has caused clashes between herders and farmers bloom.bg/2KpzYH5

In order to slow Nigeria's thriving black market, President Muhammadu Buhari should aim to float the currency, as proposed by the IMF.

Unifying exchange rates and liberalizing access to hard currency would be a big step forward bloom.bg/2KpzYH5

Economic reform could also lure more foreign investment — which is sorely needed in infrastructure. People need access to:

🛣️ Power and good roads
🚃 Cold-storage facilities and efficient transport
⚡️ Larger electricity-generating capacity bloom.bg/2KpzYH5

Nearly 2 million Nigerians enter the workforce every year.

The country that could be Africa’s dynamo is instead its biggest demographic time bomb bloom.bg/2KpzYH5