In Nigeria’s villages and farmlands, where red dust rises from rutted roads and children walk miles to reach half-finished schools, poverty is no longer just a statistic—it is a system. Today, 75.5% of rural Nigerians live below the poverty line. That figure is more than a national embarrassment; it is a developmental alarm bell. The vast majority of Nigeria’s population—approximately 45.72%  as of 2023 being the most recent (trading economics)—resides in these rural areas. Their deprivation is not peripheral to growth; it is the economy’s broken spine.