Families are changing schools, cutting back on meals, and fast doing away with recreational rituals and activities to cope in this present inflationary environment.
“Many families skip meals or take lesser portions; they get the cheaper stuff irrespective of quality. They just have to break even and there’s nothing that can be done about it,” Glory Fadipe, head of research at FCMB told BusinessDay.
Presently, Nigeria’s headline inflation stands at 20.7 percent, a persistent seven-month increase year to date, while food inflation is 23.34 percent according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The most recent report by NBS on selected food prices showed that a lot of the prices of many basic food items have risen far above the official Nigeria inflation rate of 20.7 percent.
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.
Glory Okojie, a financial consultant, complained that people no longer do what they used to do, things have become more difficult and families have to adjust their spending to maintain their standard of living.
“My family used to hold a get-together every weekend which cost an average of N15,000 -N25,000 to put together, but with the accelerating inflation and stagnant wages, we have been unable to continue with the family tradition,” she said.
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Nicholas Williams, a Lawyer, and father spoke on how expensive it is to spend quality time outside of the house saying that a lot of recreational centres have hiked their price due to surges in diesel prices and soaring inflations generally.
“Just last week I took my family of five out, we ate at a restaurant and still had time, so I decided to take them to a game arcade at Ikeja city mall. We were told that it will cost us N10,000 per child and I have three kids,” he said.
Williams said he could not afford to spend an additional N30,000 to what he had already spent at the restaurant.
“In the past, it would have cost me half of that. A lot of recreational activities are becoming out of reach for a lot of people,” Williams said.
Bolanle Peters, a brand strategist at a communication agency also mentioned that in his estate at Ajah, a lot of families have moved to the mainland due to the high cost of living, saying that it’s fast becoming rampant.
“I noticed that in my son’s school, some of his classmates moved schools because of the cost, as the school fees were increased early this year, it corroborates my observation of people moving out of my estate.”
Peters mentioned that in early marriage my wife and I had a Sunday ritual where we ate out, we no longer do it as often, now we just cook and watch movies at home.
Data from the World Bank recently projected that Nigeria’s accelerating inflation will push an additional seven million into poverty by the end of 2022.
