Atedo Peterside, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Anap Foundation, says President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms have benefitted wealthy citizens while worsening the living conditions of millions of Nigerians.
Speaking on Monday in an interview with Arise TV, Peterside said although wealthy Nigerians have recorded improvements in their investments and incomes over the last three years, low-income earners are struggling to afford basic necessities.
He added that the reforms have not adequately addressed the economic difficulties confronting majority of Nigerians.
“If you’re upper middle class, I can probably show on the blackboard investments in the stock exchange and all that stuff,” he said.
“I can show on the blackboard that you’re probably better off in the last three years. If you’re a low income worker, like somebody without much savings and struggling to eat —what 100 million Nigerians have to do, to eat two meals a day and struggling to pay your bills, I can show you that you’re a lot worse off.”
Peterside said the government failed to establish adequate social safety nets for poor Nigerians while implementing the reforms.
Citing 2025 data from TheCable Index, he said there is significant regional disparities in poverty levels.
He said poverty is concentrated in the north-west, north-east, north-central and south-south regions.
Peterside said only about 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have poverty rates below 50 percent.
He said the states with poverty rates below the 50 percent threshold were concentrated in the south-west, with Anambra in the south-east, and Edo and Delta in the south-south.
Peterside said the regional differences in poverty levels could influence how Nigerians assess the impact of the government’s economic policies.
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He said policymakers may not fully appreciate the extent of poverty in some parts of the country because they do not frequently visit affected communities.
“High poverty in Nigeria is largely a zonal problem. It is a problem of the north-west, of the north-east, of the north-central, and of the south-south,” he said.
Peterside said the government’s failure to provide adequate safety nets for poor Nigerians remain a major gap in the implementation of the reforms.
