Vunderkind
Social Member
Following its recent 90 percent GDP adjustment, Nigeria is now a solidly middle-income country. With an income per capita of $2,700, it now stands alongside countries like the Philippines and Morocco. Not exactly a rich country per se, but with a GDP of roughly $500 billion, it’s far from an impoverished one in terms of national resources. With donors providing $2 billion a year in aid to Nigeria, this raises the natural question: If Nigeria is significantly wealthier than previously thought, then should we still be providing large-scale assistance there?
This is a big question – not just for Nigeria, but other countries like Pakistan that have sizable pockets of poverty but abysmal local tax collection rates. In these countries, the US and other donors should be focusing much more on helping to unlock vast domestic resources than continuing to finance the direct delivery of social services.
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Source: CGDev
