Nigerians 'weep' over high cost of living as inflation reaches record high

The cost of living in Nigeria has risen to an all-time high, making citizens miserable as inflation has hiked in spite of efforts by the monetary and fiscal authorities to stabilize the naira's exchange value and to increase minimum wage.

Essential items like food and housing have become so expensive that it is no longer accessible to millions of citizens across the country according to a survey by Premium Times.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed in April that the country's inflation rate rose by 33.69% which has been the highest recorded since 1999.

The surge was due to the rising prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, housing, utilities, clothing, and transportation.

Urban inflation reached 36.00 per cent, while rural inflation stood at 31.64 per cent in April.

A Nigerian classroom teacher, Halima Abubakar, lamented that her salary no longer covers her basic needs.

She said: “A teacher’s salary is so small that it doesn’t cover one’s needs. Sometimes the prices of food items change twice in a day.”

Leonard Ogwezi, a building materials dealer stated that increments in prices had left him unable to replenish his stock.

He said: “Inconsistency in prices causes losses in business. I normally buy three bags of nails, but now it’s two.”

A civil servant, Abubakar Kuta, added that his living standards have fallen.

“We buy 10 measures of rice for N7,000 or less, but now the same quantity costs as much as N23,000.”

Evans Emmanuel, a Facebook user, expressed his exasperation on the situation, saying: “I read yesterday that inflation in Nigeria is at a massive 33.69%, and the Federal government is offering 48,000 Naira per month minimum wage to their workers.

“I had thought the first people you should be concerned with should be your own workers. Other institutions in the private sector had at that time reviewed upward their staff remuneration except the very government that caused the hardship through that off-hand policy.”

“As a student, the price changes have hit hard,” Eniola Brown, a student at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, lamented. “What used to cost N150 now demands N300, doubling my daily expenses, including transport and other things.”

BEB