By: Ajadi Sodiq
At an inflation rate of 31.7%, according to nairametrics, Nigeria is currently ranked 13th amongst countries with the highest inflation rate. It is an easy guess that Nigeria would be one of the top countries suffering from the grappling grasp of inflation. Despite Nigeria’s Vision 2020 for economic and political consolidation, Nigeria has remained engulfed in more economic turmoil. This downturn which has progressed over the years has had an effect on all classes of people, including students.
Nigeria’s economic challenges are deeply-rooted in political instability, corruption, and an overdependence on oil exports. The country’s failure to diversify its economy and rather invest in crucial sectors like healthcare, infrastructure, and education, has widened the gap between the country’s economic aspirations and reality. This has resulted in high unemployment rate, overbearing cost of living, and limited access to quality education, which negatively impacts education as a sector, the future prospects of Nigerian students and the country’s overall economic growth.
The Impacts On UI Students
Inflation has had a significant influence on Nigerian University students, notably those at the University of Ibadan (UI). The consequences are far-reaching, influencing every area of students’ lives, including transportation, everyday activities, and the overall well-being.
Specifically, the rise in transportation costs has caused many UI students to board cheap buses usually unsafe in their journeys, especially intermittently in the course of the session to their homes. Inflation has had its manifestation on food prices, housing, and other vital expenses, making it difficult for students and families to purchase these needs.
Esther, a 300-level Economics student, told IndyPress about her challenges, including how she nearly gave up on buying food due to the price surge in the country. She described how she used to enjoy cooking or preferred to prepare her own meals, avoiding the public cafeteria. The twilight of Nigeria’s unstable market conditions has made it difficult for Esther to maintain her space in the marketplace.
Esther recounted how she began resorting to noodles from a student vendor who cooked various dishes, just to get by after a long and stressful day of lectures. This became her coping mechanism to satisfy her hunger and find some comfort in the midst of her struggles.
“Imagine coming back from lectures around 7pm and you want to have a quick meal, noodles are usually the first thing I think of because what if I don’t have stew to take with spaghetti or rice then there’s no need to go close to it.”
This experience has not just made Esther a friend or lover of noodles or snacks in replace of regular good food. At times, the situation aggravates as Esther shortchanges noodles for Garri because she couldn’t afford to buy noodles.
“There was an evening my friends and I had classes till 7pm, and we got back to the hostel around 7:30 pm. I was so tired and hungry and I had almost exhausted my allowance then. I would have gone for noodles but the price sent me back. I eventually had to settle for garri (everyone’s lifesaver), groundnut, and sugar.”
Where the Problem Begins
Nigeria experienced one of its highest annual headline inflation rate in August 2023, pegged at 25.80%. This increase was attributed to the elimination of fuel subsidies, the depreciation of the official exchange rate, and security concerns in areas that produce food. Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices increased to 29.1% from 26.8% in July; alcohol and tobacco priced up to 15.3% from 15.1%; housing utilities increased to 21.8% from 19.9%; health care costs increased to 22.9% from 21.8%; transportation increased to 27.1% from 26.3%; and other products and services increased to 21.8% from 21.5%. Furthermore, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, in May 2024, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 33.95%, quite relative to April’s 2024 headline inflation rate which was 33.69%.
May 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.26% points when compared to the April 2024 headline inflation rate. On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.54% points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023, which was 22.41%. This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in May 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e in May 2023).
On the contrary, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in May 2024 was 2.14%, which was 0.15% lower than the rate recorded in April 2024 (2.29%). This means that in May 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is less than the rate of increase in the average price level in April 2024.
When Students Begin To Cut Coats According To Size
Tolu, a 300-Level Political Science student usually purchased a higher volume of foodstuff back in his 100-level days, which contrarily has reduced as of date.
“The economic reality of Nigeria has affected me as a student in a terrible way. The cost of living has defeated my budget quite several times. I’ve had to apply measures to redesign my budget and fit into the economic scenario of the country, which implies cutting costs on some essentials.”
“The economic reality from 2022, which was when I resumed as a student in this University, is different from the economic reality of today. The purchasing power within this little timeframe has been halved. It has not been as smooth as it used to be,” Tolu told IndyPress.
“Most essential commodities X2 the price of 2022. So imagine living with X2 the cost of living, but with the same means, or even improving your means by 50% from 2022. It’s a sad reality. I had to cut down on my monthly purchase of essentials. I used to buy 5 Congos of rice and 3 Congos of beans monthly, but in 2022, now I’ve had to cut it down to 4 Congos of rice and 2 Congos of beans this year” Tolu added.
Inflation Management Strategies
In dealing with inflation beyond the suboptimal, Tope Fasua noted that ‘growing the economy much faster simply means getting rid of inefficiencies, ensuring that people actually get productive for whatever salaries they are paid, improving capacity utilisation in industries, getting companies to grow, encouraging new productive ventures, and generating considerable productive buzz in an economy’. At the national level, the need for Government to redress its policies to better suit the daily experience of the Nigerian community cannot be overemphasized.
In the Nigerian students case, mapping a monthly budget, cutting costs, avoiding impulse buying, procuring food items in bulk, and having multiple sources of income are means out of the difficulty of the current economy.
