As the cost of living crisis continues to intensify in Africa’s biggest economy, workers in the country’s public sector are most hit, BusinessDay findings show.
Real wages, which reflect the power of employee pay after accounting for inflation, have fallen in Nigeria by 100 percent, thus making Nigerians face increasing pressures daily and forcing them to make hard choices as prices of all products continue to rise.
The situation is worst for public servants with a fixed income of N30,000 minimum wage, even as some states have failed to implement the minimum wage since 2019 when it was signed into law by President Buhari.
“It has been tough for my family. My husband and I are primary school teachers and our cost of living has been rising daily with everything increasing in the market,” said Mariam Abubarkar, a primary school teacher in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
“Despite this, our salary is fixed and the governor is yet to pay the N30,000 minimum wage for teachers despite many states not paying,” Abubarkar said.
Yinka Adegoroye, a local government worker in Ogun state said the surge in prices has had a devastating impact on her.
“I lost my husband early this year and have to take care of my children with the little I earn as a local government worker,” she said.
“With inflation, the N30,000 minimum wage is no longer sustainable,” she said, urging the government to address the plight of public servants across the country.
Nigeria’s Inflation has accelerated to 21.09 percent in October, the highest in 17 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, with it set to go even higher if the Nigerian government fails to act on soaring food, and fuel scarcity, analysts say.
Africa’s biggest economy has been grappling with double monthly digit inflation since 2016.
The situation has accelerated poverty in Africa’s most populous country with 63 percent of Nigerians (133 million) suffering from multidimensional poverty – meaning that two in three people are poor and experience just over one-quarter of deprivation such as health, the standard of living, and work, according to a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics.
“Survival is the most difficult thing in Nigeria now irrespective of whether you are in the upper, middle or lower income class as there is no source of income the surging inflation is not affecting,” Benson Salami-Olayanju, chairman of Panfcm-Tech-Wise Treasure Investment said.
“But the situation is more severe with people with fixed salaries and low-income earners. Some states are still not paying the N30,000 minimum wage, so how do civil servants survive,” Salami-Olayanju asked.
A July 2022 analysis by the United Nation 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.
In August, data from the Nigeria Union of Teachers show that teachers of primary and secondary schools across 21 states are still earning below N30,000 despite it being signed into law three years ago.
According to Damilola Adewale, a Lagos-based economic analyst, the situation in the states amid dwindling revenue and surging prices will lead to higher incidences of poverty in the country.
“It is devastating at a time when we are seeing a sustained increase in the prices of commodities and services,” Adewale said.
Read also: Necessity of controlling rising poverty in Africa
The World Bank recently projected that Nigeria’s accelerating inflation will push an additional 7 million into poverty by the end of 2022 in its report ‘The Continuing Urgency of Business Unusual.’
While it would appear that the economy has improved, with growth slowing to 2.25 percent growth in the third quarter of 2022, most of it is elusive. It is eluding a vast majority of Nigerians and has not been able to reduce poverty or lead to the creation of sufficient jobs.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate is at 33.3 percent, with youth unemployment at over 50 percent, and especially for Nigerians between 15 and 24 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This means that 23.2 million Nigerians who are able and willing to work are without jobs.
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