On Tuesday, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 21.09 percent on a year-on-year basis in October 2022 from 20.77% last month. The development, experts said, would plunge the ordinary Nigerians and the average income earners into a poverty trap and economic misery.
In the report, Nigeria’s housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (energy) inflation rate rose to 16.8 percent for October 2022. This is the highest rate since March 2017, when the rate stood at 18.9 percent
In a chat with DAILY POST on Tuesday, the Executive Director of Nigerian Workforce Strategy and Enlightenment Centre (NIWOSEC), Dr David Ehindero said the situation is getting worse by the day.
According to him, in this harvest season, commodities like beans and flour are supposed to naturally depreciate in the market because of supply power by farmers, but the reverse is the case.
He said, “Have you seen the price of pepper, spaghetti, noodles and Garri (cassava flake)? Garri, which used to be regarded as poor man’s food, is now gold; a crate of eggs costs almost N2,000 and an average loaf of bread goes for about N500.
“One single bell pepper now sells for N200. Five litres of groundnut oil is now over N6000; as for palm oil, anything you see, you take it like that.
“But the most fantastic increase has come from frozen foods like chicken, turkey, fish and the like; these are classified as rich-man’s foods now. A kilogram of chicken and turkey is now almost N2,500; no matter how you cut it, you can never get up to 10 pieces.
“Even fruits I used to buy for my children have galloped out of reach. These things are grown and produced here, yet we can’t afford them. Does this government want us to die before they know we are suffering?” He lamented.
Enhindero stressed that during the festive period, many families would not be able to have food on the table because of the skyrocketed inflation at 21.09 percent.
Also, an expert, Chief Economist Streetnomics, Gospel Obele warned that the current situation further hiked the potential of a poverty trap for Nigerians.
He said, “My concern is for the average Nigerian faced with an increased potential of a poverty trap and high cost of living daily”.
