- Nigeria inflation rate hits 26.72% in September 2023
- High cost of living rises, pushing millions of Nigerians below poverty line
- Nigerians groan as schools, landlords shoot up fees, rents respectively
Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS released a report, explaining the increasing rate of inflation in Nigeria.
According to the latest monthly release by the NBS the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 26.72 percent in September 2023 — up from 25.80 percent in the previous month.
WITHIN NIGERIA findings showed the latest figure marks the ninth consecutive rise in the country’s inflation rate this year.
Since May 29, 2023 when fuel subsidy was removed prices of things have literally not been the same in Nigeria.
In any case, in September, the NBS said, the headline inflation rate increased by 0.92 percent points when compared with the August figure.
According to the NBS, “looking at the movement, the September 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.92% points when compared to the August 2023 headline inflation rate.
“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.94% points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2022, which was 20.77%.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in September 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., September 2022).”
The bureau said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in September 2023 was 2.10 percentage points higher. This is 1.08 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in August 2023 (3.18 percent).
This means that in September 2023, the rate of increase in the average price level was less than the rate of increase in the average price level in August 2023.
According to the report, the food inflation rate in September 2023 was 30.64 percent on a year-on-year basis.
Explaining further, the Bureau said this data was 7.30 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in September 2022 (23.34 percent).
The bureau further said the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables, and milk, cheese, and eggs.
“In September 2023, Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (39.37%), Rivers (35.95%), and Lagos (35.66%),” the report reads.
“Jigawa (23.41%), Borno (25.29%) and Sokoto (25.38%) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis.”
Economic implications on Nigerians
Apart from unprecedented astronomical rise in price of consumer goods and services, many other services are also on the rise.
For instance, Raymond Ezugworie, 32 was born and raised in Nyanya, FCT, Abuja. He now lives in a self-contained apartment in a suburb Karshi Orozo, a suburb of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
However, in January his rent went from N120, 000 to N200, 000, after he says, his landlord decides to raise their rent over accelerating inflation.
Nevertheless, his landlord has again notified him and other tenants that their rent is now been increased by 40 percent, making it N280,000 annually.
He told WITHIN NIGERIA that as a school teacher, “It’s hard right now for me. I don’t know how I can be using 40% of my annual salary to pay only rent.”
Narrating his ordeal, Ezugworie “This latest rent increase by my landlord is a big blow to me and my entire family. After buying food with this high cost of consumer goods, paying for electricity and other bills, I have nothing to save,” he further told our reporter“.
Explaining further, he said, “I pray I don’t fall sick because I can’t even afford any healthcare now.”
Josephat Eze, an employee of Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu is also not left out in this ordeal.
According to Josephat, his aged mother is currently living with him and his family at Nsukka, Enugu state from where he goes to office everyday.
According to him “Prices of all the drugs my mum takes for her diabetes have almost doubled and the cost of transportation to my office has also doubled and my salary is still the same,” he narrated.
“It is an understatement to say that it is has been difficult for us. I am the only one my mum has to depend on. The sad thing about it all is that the government is not even doing anything to help its citizens.”
Narrating further ordeal, Mr. Eze told our reporter that, “last week, my landlord brought a notification letter, informing us that with effect from January 2024, our rent will be N300,000 instead of N240,000 we paid this year.
” I don’t know how we are going to come out from this situation. I have been thinking of relocating my entire family members to Eha-Amufu to reduce all these expenses. But my wife is a primary school teacher and she cannot relocate. Again, Eha-Amufu environment is not all that conducive and friendly to bring children.”
By and large, like millions of Nigerians, Ezugworie and Eze are feeling the pinch of the country’s accelerating inflation, a consequence of a weakening naira, fuel price hike.
Households and businesses across the Federation are daily being weighed down by stalled income growth and rising prices and amplifying cost of living in Africa’s biggest economy.
WITHIN NIGERIA findings showed that the situation is worse for most Nigerians living from hand to mouth. This is because they spend virtually everything they earn to sustain themselves on a daily basis and so, there’s little or no spare cash to tuck away in a savings account.
More findings revealed that majority of Nigerians are facing their inflation struggles without jobs. There was a spike in unemployment to a record 33.3 percent in 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
However, for Valentine Ogbonna, a 25-year old undergraduate of University of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN who is seeing himself through school, saw his anger rose when he realised just how much more he would now need to save to pay his tuition and renew his rent.
As a commercial motorbike operator, life is indeed not smooth for him unlike two years when he newly gained admission into the Ivory Tower.
According to him, “I have deliberately stopped eating breakfast to save more for my tuition fees that have increased by 20 percent.
“Before now, I was living alone near Odenigwe axis, an off camp community. But today, I can’t afford to do that now as my expenses have continued rising. For that reason, I was forced to get a roommate to split and reduce the financial burden on me.”
As for George Nwachukwu, a 45 year old brick layer who lives in a suburb of Obiagu, had to change his children’s schools from private to public schools as he could no longer afford to pay their school fees which have risen by 40 percent.
Narrating his financial ordeal, “the school authority told us the parents that they have to increase fees owing to the rise in the prices of everything in the country today and I cannot afford any additional increase. I was already struggling to pay their school fees before the new tuition fees regime.
“I had to change them to another school to avoid having heart attack and collapsing one day as a result of over thinking.
“The worst thing is that nobody knows when this ugly trend will stop. When President Muhammadu Buhari was in power, we thought we were suffering. But, today we have seen that the worse was yet to come. It is very bad that instead of things getting better, they are getting worse.”
The global bank estimates based on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data show that 89.8 million Nigerians fell below the poverty line at the start of 2023, with an additional four million making it 93.8 million in May of 2023.
Painfully, despite this, Nigerian politicians are still in lavish spending, a sign that the Tinubu led-government is not willing to share in the pain of its bold economic reforms that have left Nigerians poorer.
Till date, the administration of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has refused to explain to Nigerians why it chose to purchase a SUVs worth N130m for each and every federal law maker.