As the New Year ushers in, Nigerians have called on the government to focus its attention on security, and the economy to help improve their already weakened standard of living.
According to a recent public opinion poll by NOIPolls Limited, the top three key areas are Security (50 percent), Reduction in prices of goods and services (44 percent), Economy and Job creation both tied at (42 percent) that Nigerians want the government to make their top priorities in 2022.
Other areas include Electricity (36 percent), Health (28 percent), Agriculture (19 percent), Education (8 percent), Water (5 percent), and Road (3 percent).
The poll was conducted to gauge the perception of Nigerians regarding their expectations for the year 2022.
Conducted in the week commencing December 13, 2021, it involved telephone interviews of a proportionate nationwide sample of 1,000 randomly selected phone-owning Nigerians aged 18 years and above, representing the six geopolitical regions and 36 states and the FCT of the country.
“Nigerians believe and trust that the New Year will bring the much-desired relief to their lives economically and in other aspects,” NOIPolls said.
The research organisation also added that they expect the government to expedite action and stimulate the economy so that the common man will experience meaningful progress and development.
Last year was a tough one for consumers despite the ease in the lockdown measures introduced by the government to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus in 2020.
The economic downturn during the pandemic led to rising unemployment levels, high prices and decreasing disposable incomes among many Nigerian households in 2020 and these negative impacts continued in the following year.
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“Incomes did not grow, inflation was high and as such what consumers could afford last year or two years ago, they are not able to afford again,” Ayodele Akinwunmi, senior relationship manager, corporate banking group, FSDH Merchant Bank said.
Last year, the level of insecurity increased as mass abductions or kidnapping in Nigeria surged to its highest in at least a decade.
According to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project about 1,200 people have been kidnapped in the first half of 2021 from 45 in 2010.
Similarly, the kidnapping of farmers from their farmlands in various parts of the country drove up food prices. The high prices pushed consumers to reduce their food consumption.
In July 2021, the World Bank noted that the country’s surging inflation rate pushed seven million Nigerians into poverty.
According to the Bank, before inflation started rising steadily, there were 82.9 million poor Nigerians but the number has risen to 90.1 million.
As at December 2021, Nigeria’s inflation rate stands at 15.63 percent, which is among the highest in the world.
Unemployment has also affected the disposable income of families and eroded purchasing power. The country’s unemployment rate stood at 33.3 percent in Q4 2020 from 27.1 percent in Q2 of the same year.
And the current unemployment rate is expected to increase further to 40 percent by the end of 2021, according to the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).
“With these challenges, it is indeed important for the government to expedite action in the areas enumerated by Nigerians to ameliorate the sufferings they are facing so that everyone will experience prosperity in the year,” NOIPolls recommended.
