Business owners, students lament high cost of living on campus

Though businesses on Nigerian campuses have regained momentum after the epileptic commercial atmosphere occasioned by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, business owners still lament the cost of living is taking its toll on them.

Kazeem Alarape, a business owner at the Faculty of Education unit of the University of Lagos disclosed to BusinessDay that though businesses are alive again after the lengthy strike yet the rate of patronage is on the decline due to the fact that many of the students are affected by the economic crunch.

“The patronage is low compared to what it used to be before the strike. In terms of percentage, I will say, we are witnessing about 80 percent sales, and this is mainly due to the economic situation; many of the students are not as buoyant as they used to be, hence, they are limited by finance.

Yusuf Waidi, a business owner at another location of the institution collaborated with the words of his colleague when he said that patronage is on the decline.

“Our daily sales have dropped, students are no longer buying things as before,” he said.

Nigeria’s inflation accelerated to 20.7 percent in September, the highest in 17 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, and looks set to go even higher if the government fails to act on soaring food, and diesel prices, analysts say. Africa’s biggest economy has been grappling with double-digit inflation since 2016.

Households and businesses have been treading water for decades – weighed down by dwindling income and rising prices – but the spike in inflation that resulted from the pandemic and the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war is causing frustrations among Nigerians.

About 90.4 million Nigerians are food-insecure, and malnutrition rates in most northern states have more than doubled, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization.

A July 2022 analysis by the United Nations on prices shows that a 10 percent increase in food prices will trigger a five percent decrease in the incomes of households. Food prices in Nigeria have surged by over 100 percent since January to date, and going by the UN analysis, the real wages of Nigerians will have decreased by over 50 percent.

Read also: Cost of living makes poverty reality of more Nigerians, limits prosperity

Wilfred Johnson, a student, said due to the fact that the upkeep money from his parents has been reduced, he has no option but to cut down his expenditures.

“I have cut down on my recharge cards, food, soft drinks, and other not-too-necessary expenditures to be able to navigate the challenging situation of the high cost of living,” said.

Praise Obi, a student at Lead City University, Ibadan in Oyo State lamented the rise in the cost of necessary daily items which have made life a little unbearable for her and other students.

“Before now we used to pay N50 for transport to school for lectures, but now it has gone up to N100. Coca-cola and other related drinks have also gone up. Coke is now N200, even the cost of pastries has risen,” she said.

In order to save cost, she said has cut down some of her daily needs such as replacing coke with water, and that sometimes she will have to trek to save cost.