…Nigerian students moan rising cost of living on campus
The cost of food and other essential items on campus has gone up to 400 per cent compared to what they were in 2023, amid the rising inflation, as students groan over the untold hardship this has brought on them.
Many students complained that the ripple effects of the surging economic crunch have made the prices of food items and other essential daily needs go up.
Kingsley Alozie, a 100-level student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, in Anambra State, said he spends not less than N3,000 on food every day.
“My feeding expenditure every day is in the range of N3,000 to N6,000 in August 2023, when I resumed school here, I could comfortably eat one plate of rice and beans for N600 or a plate of rice with meat and salad for N700 or N800, but now, everything has gone up,” he said.
Jude Okoye said the prevailing cost of living on campus was not pleasant to him as the cost of things is consistently on the surge.
“For the cost of things, only food is N3,000 daily, that’s if I manage myself. It’s not easy for most of us especially people like me that don’t have sponsors.
“It’s affecting my finances, easy to leave but hard to get, talking about money,” he said.
Another student said that life on campus at UNIZIK is tough and rough now, especially with the rising cost of food, transport, and electric bills.
He said that he buys a plate of rice at N1,700, and if he drinks nutrimilk, he spends N2,200.
“Although, this morning, I came from my parents’ house, if not I would have spent N2,000 for my dinner.
“In a day that I leave the house without eating, I would buy ‘Okpa’ and a soft drink for N1,000, in the afternoon, I will eat rice at N1,200, while in the evening I would take snacks if I did not go home,” he said.
Kazeem Alarape, a student at the University of Lagos described the high cost of living on campus as regrettable.
“We’re paying N15,000 monthly per student as our electric bill, which is outside the house rent and other concomitant costs. On the feeding aspect, the price varies according to what one may want to eat at the time.
But the truth is that the prices of things here are throat-cutting,” he said.
Alarape said he spends more N2, 000 if he wants to eat a decent meal per time, something that used to sell for N800.
Amaka Umeh, a student at the University of Benin said the students are passing through hell to make ends meet on campus.
“A plate of cooked rice goes for N500, and one would need up to five times of such to be satisfied,” she said.
Janet Uwaozuoke, a student of Imo State University said one of the ways the economic crunch is affecting students on campus is the higher cost of the school fees and other daily runs that make study easy on campus.
She said the inflation, coupled with poor funding of education has made life very burdensome for students, which according to her, can cause some students to drop out.
“Some students work more hours to meet up with the bills and this is telling on them and has some negative implications on their studies,” she said.
Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said headline inflation for June 2024, was dominantly driven by food inflation, which rose to 40.9 per cent year-on-year, up from 40.7 in May 2024 and significantly higher than 25.3 per cent in June 2023.
In the same vein, core inflation rose to 27.4 per cent in June 2024, from 27.0 per cent in May 2024 and 20.1 per cent in June 2023.
Besides, the report states that all measures of inflation rate rose in June 2024, albeit at a slower pace. Headline inflation increased to 34.2 per cent in June 2024 from 22.8 per cent in June 2023 and 34.0 per cent in May 2024.
