The persistent increase in absolute poverty has become worrisome to both the government
and the people of Nigeria. Using a Time series simple linear forecasting model this
paper examines the trend in absolute poverty in Nigeria and made forecast of what the rate of
absolute poverty vis-à-vis the nation’s population would be between the year 2001 and 2010.
The result obtained indicate that by the year 2010, 129.6 million people out of the projected
137.8 million people would be poor if certain policy measures such as sound fiscal and monetary
policies, increase in employment, heavy investment in agriculture, development and promotion
of the informal sector activities, good governance and fight against corruption are not
taken into consideration.