Nigeria’s economic reforms have failed to reduce poverty as soaring debt costs and higher public spending offset expected savings, Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele said.
Speaking at the African Emerging Markets Forum in Abuja on Thursday, Oyedele said savings from scrapping fuel and foreign exchange subsidies were absorbed by rising debt obligations.
He said borrowing costs climbed to 24% from 8%, while the government nearly doubled the minimum monthly wage to 70,000 naira ($51).
The government also expanded spending through an education loan programme supporting more than 1.5 million students.
Although international lenders backed the reforms, they have increased living costs for millions of Nigerians.
Oyedele rejected an IMF assessment that poverty remains widespread, arguing that lower real incomes are a temporary cost of economic restructuring.
He said the government will measure future progress using multidimensional poverty indicators rather than GDP alone.
