In 2015, the World Bank awarded a $100 million grant to Nigeria for the implementation of a public expenditure action plan to reform the country’s agricultural sector. The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Finance drew heavily from IFPRI’s research during its dialogue with the World Bank, which helped Nigeria acquire the grant.
The strategic allocation of public expenditures in agriculture is crucial to ensuring food and nutrition security, and poverty reduction. In Nigeria, increasing agricultural productivity promises positive impacts for the poor, given that a large portion of the labor force remains in subsistence farming, and many poor people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Despite this, Nigeria allocated less than 4 percent of its total public spending to agriculture in 2012, which is low compared to other African countries.