How Entrepreneurship is Driving Poverty Reduction in Nigeria

In the shadow of Nigeria’s poverty statistics, where nearly two-thirds of citizens live on less than $2 a day, a quieter revolution is underway. In the dry-season heat of Benue State, a farmer rises at dawn to tend his maize and guinea corn. After each harvest, he sells part of his yield, feeds the rest to his livestock and uses their manure to fertilize the next crop. These animals double as savings and are sold once school fees are due. He has no insurance, no grant and no bank account, yet this quiet rhythm of work sustains his family.

Across Nigeria, millions live the same pattern of improvised survival. They are market women in Akwa Ibom, backyard gardeners in Borno and roadside tailors in Lagos. Their livelihoods may be invisible to the formal economy, yet they are fueling what researchers at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) describe in their 2025 policy briefing, Growth from Below: Poverty Reduction beyond Social Protection in Nigeria, as the country’s most overlooked engine for poverty reduction.