Niger, a landlocked country in the Sahel region, has a poorly diversified economy, with agriculture accounting for 40% of its GDP. The country has been heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture, and the level of extreme poverty is expected to reach 44.1% in 2023. To address this, the World Bank has recommended that Niger should diversify its economy to achieve deeper structural growth and faster poverty reduction.
The country has experienced relatively robust growth over the past 20 years, but due to population growth and minimal increase in average per capita income, the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased to 10.5 million in 2021. The government has been urged to adopt ambitious institutional and economic reforms to place Niger on a more dynamic path and offer better economic opportunities to the entire population, especially women and young people.
Our approach aims to identify the bottlenecks that have stymied Niger’s past performance and recommends the adoption of modern technologies in all sectors, starting with agriculture, to make it more productive and resilient. The government has been advised to focus on pro-productivity and pro-poor policies to achieve economic diversification beyond oil, subsistence agriculture, and informal activities. The criticality of fostering diversification has been emphasized, and it has been suggested that promoting peace and stability, as well as addressing the sources of fragility, are essential components of a diversification strategy in Niger.
The government has been urged to adopt ambitious institutional and economic reforms to place Niger on a more dynamic path and offer better economic opportunities to the entire population, especially women and young people. The report identifies the bottlenecks that have stymied Niger’s past performance and recommends the adoption of modern technologies in all sectors, starting with agriculture, to make it more productive and resilient.
The government has been advised to focus on pro-productivity and pro-poor policies to achieve economic diversification beyond oil, subsistence agriculture, and informal activities. The criticality of fostering diversification has been emphasized, and it has been suggested that promoting peace and stability, as well as addressing the sources of fragility, are essential components of a diversification strategy in Niger.
