essay on economic hardship in nigeria

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Ways to survive the present economic hardship

Nigeria Economic hardship

The economic challenges faced by Nigerians today contrast with the favourable clime enjoyed in the 80s.

In those days, life was good and prices of commodities very affordable; domestic animals would return home in the evenings swollen-bellied; there was access to food because herdsmen and bandits hadn’t been afflicted by demons, and farm produce happily waited to be harvested not by cows, but the planters. As if nature hadn’t been fair enough, diseases like cancer, ALS and hepatitis weren’t widely recorded. Above all, the Corruption Academy founded by Nigerian leaders hadn’t produced many graduates like we have today.

The hardship gathered momentum between 2015 and 2023 and exploded shortly after President Tinubu removed the controversial petroleum subsidy on July 2023. Since then a lot has gone belly up, with escalating cost of items driving the masses grumpy. Obviously, Satan, with sophisticated malware has hacked into Nigeria’s cyber space, bringing economic hardship to people. Fortunately, here are some survival tactics one can use in order to live.

Since the affordability of the price of petrol has become impossible, you should own a bicycle and go on Shanks’s pony, irrespective of the nature of your job. Carpooling is also OK. For those whose workplace is within riding and walking distance, such choice does your health big good. Don’t bike if you haven’t learnt cycling. Both the trekker (with soft shoes) and rider should have their protective and first-aid kits with them.

The textile industry is dead. Therefore, you should go for ‘okrika’ (second-hand clothes) and other like products in order to cut costs. Another survival strategy bothers on potable water, which is very important to life. Because the recent hike in the price (N350.00) of a bag of sachet water is an atrocity, you should boil your water in a large crucible, using firewood. After the water is cooled, filter it with a clean cloth.

Avoid companies fast food and ‘mama put’ joints, because your best restaurant is the kitchen you abandon in your house. Over-processed foods like those sold in Tantalizers and The Promise threaten your aging cells and drain your resources whilst ‘mama put’ impoverishes you in a subtle, harmless way.

The availability of farm produce, remember, is affected by the removal of subsidy. With this in mind, why not convert to a minifarm any piece of land in your house? Again, in time like this when the government has turned a deaf ear to the death rattle in the citizens’ throats, it’s wise you cut down on your daily expenses. If you love travelling a lot, you’ve got to clip your wings. For your car (not cars), do a half tank rather than a full. As a private car owner, try wearing another hat  private car owner and commercial driver. To preserve your fuel, turn your ignition off when descending a slope.

Withdraw your children from those expensive private schools and get them enrolled in public ones. Avoid spending too much on your wedding and father/mother/in-law’s, etc. burial, and those after-work trips to the bars should be reduced. As a family man, install no washing machine in your house and visit no laundry when your hands aren’t amputated. The weeding and cleaning waiting in your house shouldn’t be given to a labourer, for it’s exercise that keeps one in good form.

See this: Being conscious of your electricity tariff. This requires you to switch off all electrical appliances before you go to bed and leave for work.

You can’t cheat nature. True as this assertion is, you can ‘cheat’ your barber sometimes. Allow your hair to grow well, say for a month before you visit a salon, if you’re not your own barber. Help your children cut their hair. If you live alone and don’t want visitors, all you need is a single plate, spoon, fork, chair and table in your house, as this plan saves you of unnecessary expenses.

Be economical with your cooking gas. To prepare egusi soup for instance, wash the pot and the ingredients. Then, add all the ingredients at once and allow to cook. Apply the same strategy to rice and beans after parboiling it. Eat rice or beans directly from the pot after it’s cooled. This saves you of wasting your soap. Very important, don’t waste or throw away food; visit the market late in the evening.

For those who don’t use cooking gas, this is for you: Construct your stove from an empty gallon or a paint can, and stuff it with sawdust whilst inserting a bottle in between to form a passage for fire. The nearness of a sawmill to your residence is an advantage. Because the early bird catches the worm, always be the first to arrive at a burial, wedding, etc. ceremony especially those of the upper classes in your society.

Diesel is more expensive than petrol nowadays; those lorries that dispose of septic tanks and sewage run on diesel. Ensure you reduce the number of times you bathe in a day. Pour into an open space the water used when you do the laundry. Don’t fill up the pit: the lower it is, the higher your savings.

In a high-tech world where almost everyone pays for the ‘air’time that’s given by God, do ensure you’re less addicted to your phone/laptop/TV by avoiding irresponsible data subscription. Quit Facebook if possible. Maintain good, personal hygiene and don’t fall sick. Avoid mosquito bites by having your doors/windows protected; this keeps malaria and its medical expenses at bay. Lastly, help those in needs financially/materially.

Chinua Achebe wrote, ‘Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he’s learned to fly without perching’. Poor Nigerians are hit by the subsidy removal and there seems to be no solution to their plight yet. However, the tactics highlighted in this article, if well adopted, will reduce the crime, death and prostitution rates in the country. The survival tactics may sound more queer than realistic, yet convey the urgency of the situation in Nigeria.

For President Tinubu to win plaudits, he’d first revive the refineries in Nigeria and establish modular ones even though these won’t make petrol cheaper and stop corruption. Will the refinery in Lekki and the ‘system’ in Nigeria allow the President to revamp the refineries in Onne, Warri and Kaduna and make petrol cheaper?

President Tinubu should ‘take back’ the funds stolen by the offices of the EFCC, Attorney General, Accountant General, NDDC; and reopen the allegations of sleaze levelled against other Nigerians. For the President to save the masses of further pains, he’s got to be genuinely committed to tackling critical infrastructure. He should evolve export-driven policies that will boost the economy, revive the ailing industries, attract private investors and create jobs.

To conclude, we maintain that whilst it’s necessary to pray that the ghost of Lord Lugard call Nigerian leaders to order, I firmly believe that Nigeria won’t get good leaders unless Jesus Christ and Allah, with more disciples, take over the Aso Rock Villa. Subsidy removal is the latest mare’s nest mesmerizing the country. Sola wrote from Port Harcourt.

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Nigeria’s ‘hardship’ economy in four charts

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Nigeria’s economy grew at 2.7% last year, the lowest rate since the country’s recession in 2020, according to the state-run National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The performance came on the back of reduced growth across nearly all sectors of Africa’s largest economy from agriculture and trade to manufacturing and construction. The finance sector was a notable exception. Activity in the oil and mining sectors rebounded after shrinking in 2022.

A change of government last May heralded new policy directions for Nigeria. A years-long petrol subsidy program was ended while a fixed peg for the naira currency against the dollar was scrapped. The period since has been marked by rising prices and a continuously depreciating naira, fueling widespread hardship.

Two main labor unions for government employees plan to hold protests this week. They say the government is yet to implement cost-of-living adjustments agreed to last October as prices rose in response to the subsidy removal.

Analysts welcomed the Nigerian oil sector’s recovery, marked by a 12% growth in the last three months of the year. But the reduction of the overall economy in dollar terms from $471 billion to $356 billion in 2023 is “ bad news ” for President Bola Tinubu’s ambitions of a trillion-dollar economy, said Wilson Erumebor, an economist at the Nigeria Economic Summit Group think tank.

Here are three other charts that show the state of Nigeria’s economy in 2023.

💡Transportation : Tinubu’s termination of the petrol subsidy saw pump prices triple across the country, leading to corresponding hikes in transportation fares. Road travel fared the worst of the major means of transportation, shrinking 55% in the three months up to June and continuing until December. Petrol prices have risen further this month.

💡Agriculture : While it consistently accounts for a quarter of GDP, Nigeria’s agriculture sector is increasingly posting smaller annual growth, with a little over 1% growth last year. The last time it grew over 3% was in 2017. Food inflation, on the other hand, has surged. It is currently at 35%, according to the NBS.

💡Capital importation: The flow of capital into Nigeria’s economy reduced by 27% to $3.91 billion in 2023, marking the lowest figure since 2007. Most major sectors of the economy recorded steep inflow falls, except the production/manufacturing, and information technology sectors. Loans of $2.31 billion made up more than half of the total inflows, as foreign direct and portfolio investment each reduced by about 19%.

Nigerians are questioning the wisdom of implementing the petrol subsidy removal . Michael Famoroti, an analyst at Lagos-based advisory firm Stears, describes the fallout as “a lesson about the fragility of reforms in an economy pushed to the brink.”

Nigeria at 61: A giant with challenging crises amid opportunities

Professor of Economic History, Kaduna State University

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Terhemba Wuam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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As Nigeria marks its 61st anniversary of independence, its citizens are stuck in a general anomie of despondency . This is as a result of general insecurity in the country , rising unemployment and high-cost of living.

It is also an age of anxiety, with many measures of Nigeria’s socioeconomic progress painting a picture of a nation in great distress. Nigeria’s economy has been stagnant , growing at less than 1% cumulatively during the past six years, far below population growth of 2.6%. It also has about 40% of the population of about 200 million living below the poverty line.

The country is equally beset by security and political challenges. Boko Haram insurgents still operate in the North-East. In the North-West, bandits are overwhelming the security forces. In North-Central Nigeria, deadly clashes between farmers and herders continue. And separatist and irredentist agitations resonate in the South-East and the South-West of the country .

Despite these problems, Nigeria has made substantial socio-economic progress, at least since 1999 when it returned to democracy after decades of military rule. It is also a country with huge resources that have yet to be fully tapped. The biggest of these is Nigeria’s educated citizens. The country had a literate population of less than 5% at independence. Now, more than 60% of the population is literate. Also, enrolment into tertiary education keeps increasing.

The past 60 years

A review of the past six decades shows that the Fourth Republic, which took off in 1999, has been Nigeria’s golden era in terms of economic and social indicators. This reality is, however, a difficult one to present to the millions of unemployed who are out of work and struggling to cope with inflationary pressures on food and other basic livelihood requirements.

Since 1999, Nigeria’s economy has grown more than sevenfold. A big chunk of this is explained by the rebasing of the economy in 2014 . It was found that the economy was 60% bigger than previous estimates.

Before 2014, Nigeria had been using the 1990 prices and the composition of economy to determine its size. Yet, a lot had changed since then. For example, telecommunications had grown substantially with the introduction of mobile telephony. Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie industry, has also expanded and morphed into a more professionally organised and run sector .

Nigeria moved from lower income to lower-middle income status, based on national income per head of population, during the Fourth Republic. That’s based on World Bank rankings . Other countries in this category include Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Tunisia, India, Iran and Ukraine.

Economic difficulties

Nigeria’s economic difficulties started in the mid-2010s. Nigeria’s economic fortunes are closely aligned with oil prices which showed a sharp decline between 2014 and 2016.

The World Bank has described the 70% drop during that period as one of the three biggest declines since World War II, and the longest lasting since the supply-driven collapse of 1986.

In response, Nigeria’s economy, which had recorded an average growth rate of 6.68% between 1999 and 2015, has plunged in and out of negative figures since 2016. Within this period, it entered recession twice. . Cumulative growth since 2016 has averaged below 1% .

Nigeria has taken steps to reduce its reliance on oil. These measures include revival of the agricultural sector as well as reducing government reliance on oil revenues by tax revenue from other sources . These have yet to pay off . And the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the economic downturn, plunging more into unemployment and poverty.

Nigeria’s government has invested in agriculture and has articulated economic programmes for other sectors, progress has been hampered by inflationary pressures, low oil prices and a weak currency . Government’s inability to arrest the security crises in several states has also affected agricultural productivity . Other factors include government’s inability to articulate a clear economic agenda for the country. In addition, its monetary and fiscal policies favouring dual exchange rates, and restrictions on foreign trade through border closures have limited recovery and growth.

A national call to action

Nigeria requires a national leadership with the understanding and capability to set the tone and direction for national growth and development. This must incorporate all citizens, irrespective of ethnic or geopolitical affiliation in a grand vision of collective dynamic growth.

A lack of such political leadership denies the country of the possibility of meaningful growth and critical citizenry.

Nigeria remains a country of great potential. Her fountain of possibilities can be found in its growing population of educated citizens. The population of the educated at this very moment in the country’s history is at the threshold or point of national acceleration . An example is the country’s burgeoning tech ecosystem largely driven by young people . It is at a point conterminous with those of the Asian Tigers before their rapid transformation to developed world and high income status.

All the fundamentals are indicative of a country at the point of a great leap forward, the role of an enlightened and well-educated population is crucial to that process.

Despite limitations in the education sector, Nigeria has more than over 190 universities , the largest university and tertiary education sector in Africa. The country churns out millions of graduate annually, creating the most educated workforce on the continent.

This growth represents both a challenge and an opportunity. It will be a challenge and a huge economic burden if productive opportunities are not found for their engagement. Gainfully employed, these educated millions can be harnessed to drive Nigeria’s economic growth, thus promoting social stability.

Political leadership

Nigeria challenge is not that its political leadership has been corrupt, but that its has had limited ability to govern the country effectively. Nigeria needs a modern political administration where the state is not about maintenance of the status quo and the mere allocation of existing economic values for project and self-aggrandisement.

The state should be reoriented, and directed purposely towards a more expansive interpretation with focus on rapid economic growth and the provision of public goods that empower citizens to become meaningful actors in the overall positive transformation of their society.

Such purposeful action by the national leadership, who must be clearly reformist, is required to alter the trajectory of poor economic growth. It is also required to foster sustained productivity gains in the country’s economy to generate growth to average 6%-10% annually. Such growth is what will enable Nigeria to triple and possibly quadruple its economy within the next 10-15 years in a repeat of the first 20 years of the Fourth Republic.

Inevitably, a growing economy represents the best pathway toward addressing many of the social and economic challenges Nigeria now faces in its seventh decade of independence.

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Young, qualified and barely scraping by – inside Nigeria’s economic crisis

With unemployment among the world’s worst and those under 35 hit hardest, young Nigerians see their prospects rapidly diminish

Favour Obi graduated in 2016 with a first class degree in biomedical sciences and what felt like reasonable hopes for a career in medical research.

Before a recent shift waiting tables at a fast food restaurant in Lagos, the 27-year-old explained how gradually she let those hopes drift away. “I knew it would be hard to find a job but at the same time I was so determined, I was staying hopeful,” she said.

Her job for the past three and a half years pays 35,000 naira (£60) a month, just above Nigeria’s minimum wage and barely enough to live on. It was initially meant to be temporary.

“But it’s been years now and I’m still here. There are so many people I know in a similar position,” she said, describing friends around her age, who were well-qualified yet grappling with how to do more than just survive.

Obtaining a graduate degree has always been revered in her family, Obi said, yet her post-university life has been an uphill struggle. Like many of her generation she has been forced to learn trades and pursue other career paths. “We grow up being told that going to university will help you become successful,” she said. “Being qualified makes us proud, our parents are proud, but for many of us, it hasn’t changed our lives for the better because we’re lacking jobs.”

Nigeria’s vast, rapidly growing population of 200 million people has a median age of just 18. Many of its young people have seen their prospects quickly diminish in recent years.

Since 2015, Nigeria has endured one of its worst economic slumps in a generation. Two recessions since 2016 – driven by a combination of the government’s economic policies, a collapse in oil prices, and the Covid-19 pandemic – have inflicted prolonged misery.

The economic challenges are stark and affect people across the age spectrum, but the rise of youth unemployment has been among the most troubling factors.

The unemployment rate has quadrupled since 2015 to become one of the worst globally. At the end of last year, 23 million people – or 33% of working age people looking for work – were recorded as unemployed, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and younger people were worst affected.

Almost half of working-age Nigerians under 35 are either unemployed or underemployed – working part-time when they would like to be full time – the NBS said in March. A shadow has been cast over the young, reinforcing the sense that greener pastures lie elsewhere.

“Many people now just want to leave,” Obi said. “So many people I know don’t see Nigeria as a place they can actually thrive.”

Throughout the morning, dozens of mainly young people stream in and out of a dim hallway in an old building in the Lagos Island district of Nigeria’s sprawling metropolis, meeting job agents who connect them to employers.

“The number of jobs are shrinking and the number of people looking is growing everyday,” said 46-year-old Julius Oshie, a job agent for the past five years, as he explained how the job market had dramatically changed.

“The other problem is that the type of jobs available are not what many young people see as beneficial to them. They are jobs that they take to survive, not to get on in life,” he said. “Cleaning jobs, bar jobs, ‘house helps’ [maids]. And it’s not just the poorer masses taking these jobs. It’s the aspirational classes, the more highly educated,” he said. “It’s been like this for a long time, it’s just you can say it’s getting worse.”

Oshie gestured to a stack of CVs at the end of his desk. “I have people with top degrees in very technical, impressive subjects – physics, statistics – and they come here and after years without work in their field, they’re going to low earning jobs, paying less than 30,000 naira per month,” he said.

In some cases, white collar jobs had less appeal, Oshie said, due to corporate companies cutting the wages offered as the economy has struggled. It was also common for employers to complain that roles went unfilled because of skills shortages.

Attaining a university degree is a dominant aspiration in Nigerian culture, which venerates academic achievement and excellence. Many people see higher education as a route out of poverty, yet in practice university qualifications are not working for many young people, said Tokunbo Afikuyomi, the editor of Stears Business, an economic analysis company based in Lagos.

“We have a situation where the more middle class and educated class are struggling to find work. The unemployment rate of those who left secondary school is lower than the unemployment rate of those who left university,” he said.

Many Nigerians blame president Muhammadu Buhari’s government for exacerbating the oil and Covid crises by closing land borders for extended periods, enacting import bans and failing to deal with rising insecurity .

In response to rising unemployment, the Buhari government has adopted a number of jobs programmes, including some targeted at young people and graduates that provide short-term roles, placements and training. The government says many of the programmes have helped to boost the employment prospects of hundreds of thousands of young people.

It is expected, for instance, that mass job programmes such as the Special Public Works scheme – the largest such programme in the country’s history – will provide 750,000 three-month jobs to unemployed graduates this year.

But Afikuyomi said the benefits the scheme were limited. “With jobs, they can’t be created by force,” he said. “If you’re not building enough houses, or infrastructure you get a situation where you create a jobs programme where people only have jobs for a fixed period, then they’re unemployed again.”

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Nigeria Economic Update: Resilience through Reforms

Photo: Arne Hoel/World Bank

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The latest Nigeria Development Update report says that Nigeria has exited from its deepest recession in four decades as COVID-19 restrictions were eased
• Oil prices recovered, and the authorities implemented sensible and timely policies to counter the economic shock on Nigerian’s welfare and to create new fiscal space
• With poverty increasing in 2020 due to the combined effects of COVID-19 and rising prices, the report recommends policy options that can help reduce inflation and protect poor households from its impacts

ABUJA, June 15, 2021 –  In 2020 the Nigerian economy shrank by 1.8%, its deepest decline since 1983. The COVID-19 crisis drove the economic slowdown; the external context was marked by capital outflows, intensified risk aversion, low oil prices, and shrinking foreign remittances.

The  Nigeria Development Update Resilience through Reforms states that reforms implemented by the Nigerian government were critical and timely to alleviate the impact of the recession on the economy and to create additional fiscal space. Reform slippages would threaten the pace of recovery and limit the government’s ability to address gaps in human and physical capital.

The report discusses policy options to reduce inflation, protect the poor and vulnerable and support economic recovery. Accomplishing these goals will require a big push in exchange-rate management, monetary policy, trade policy, fiscal policy, and social protection. Some specific measures recommendations are the following:

• Increasing the transparency and predictability of exchange rate management policies to reduce distortions in allocations in the private and public sector; and to ensure that agents can access foreign exchange in a timely and orderly manner, at an agreed rate.
• Clearly defined monetary-policy priorities and objectives, with price stability as the primary goal. The resumption of naira-denominated open-market operations (OMOs) based on a transparent issuance schedule, and signal to markets that OMOs will use short-maturity securities to achieve price stability.
• Full and effective reopening of land borders for trade and strengthening regional cooperation to combat smuggling.
• Facilitation of imports for staple foods and medicines by removing them from the list of foreign exchange (FX) restrictions and replacing import bans and with tariffs that align with the ECOWAS Common External Tariff.
• Establishing mechanisms to monitor and report the federal government’s stock of Central Bank overdrafts to control the growth of the money supply.
• Full elimination of the petrol subsidy; and design of sequenced reforms to mobilize domestic nonoil revenue in a way that does not affect the economic recovery, including increasing excise taxes on harmful consumption goods, rationalizing tax expenditures, removing loopholes in tax laws, and improving tax compliance by strengthening revenue administration.
• Leveraging the National Social Safety Nets Program (NASSP) to provide transfers to additional households, and temporarily increase transfers to current beneficiaries
• Complementing the NASSP with the National Home-Grown School Feeding Program (NHGSFP) to strengthen the food security of vulnerable households in 26 States: and rapidly implement the World Bank-supported CARES project to support households, farmers, and firms.

Recent Economic Developments

The Nigerian economy is expected to grow by 1.8% in 2021, though there is high uncertainty about the outlook. The recovery would be driven by rise in oil exports and in domestic demand. However, Nigeria’s recovery is expected to underperform those of other oil producers, and an unexpected shock to oil prices could threaten the modest growth projected. Moreover, high inflation and high unemployment exacerbate macroeconomic risks, and activity in the tertiary sector will not fully normalize unless COVID-19 is contained. By the end of 2021, Nigeria’s GDP is likely to approach its 2010 level, thus reversing a full decade of economic growth. GDP per capita is projected to continue declining because the economy is forecast to grow more slowly than the population.

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• PRESS RELEASE: Critical Reforms Needed to Reduce Inflation and Accelerate the Recovery, says New World Bank Report
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Nigeria in 2023: Bridging the productivity gap and building economic resilience

Subscribe to africa in focus, wilson erumebor we wilson erumebor senior economist - nigerian economic summit group, doctoral researcher - soas university of london @wilsonrume.

February 6, 2023

Below is a viewpoint from the  Foresight Africa 2023  report, which explores top priorities for the region in the coming year. Read the full chapter on  economic recovery and growth .

Another key feature of Nigeria’s economy in the last seven years has been the shift of economic activity towards agriculture and a slowdown of the manufacturing sector. As a share of GDP, agriculture expanded from 23 percent in 2015 to 26 percent in 2021, while manufacturing declined from 9.5 percent to 9 percent respectively. During this period , non-oil exports as a share of non-oil GDP averaged 1.3 percent while manufactured goods as a share of total exports remained low at 5.2 percent in 2021. Part of the problem facing the economy is the neglect of the manufacturing sector. Essentially, Nigeria is not producing enough, for both local consumption and export. The consequences of having a weak manufacturing base for a country with such a large population are evident in its foreign exchange shortages, limited number of jobs created to accommodate workforce entrants, and an import bill that can hardly be met (nor sustained) by current export earnings.

Worse still, 80 percent of workers are employed in sectors with low levels of productivity —agriculture and non-tradable services. This means that the kind of jobs needed to generate income growth and lift many Nigerians out of poverty are not available in large numbers. As Nigeria approaches the general elections in 2023, there is immense pressure on political leaders to tackle these economic challenges and implement policies that will deliver an inclusive and competitive economy.

As Nigeria approaches the general elections in 2023, there is immense pressure on political leaders to tackle these economic challenges and implement policies that will deliver an inclusive and competitive economy.

The new administration, working with stakeholders, needs to develop an agenda for economic and social inclusion. At the heart of such agenda must be improving the lives of the average Nigerian. This agenda must also include a practical strategy on how to structurally transform the economy, moving labor and economic resources from low productivity sectors to high productivity sectors.

At the top of the productivity ladder is the tradable services sector, which has the potential to improve incomes and raise overall productivity. The challenge with this sector, however, is its inability to accommodate labor in large numbers. Nevertheless, the sector is important, given Nigeria’s young population who are increasingly driving technological revolution across various sectors on the African continent. To leverage the full potential of this sector, the government will need to design and implement national skills programs aimed at upskilling young Nigerians , to ensure many more embrace digital skills and capabilities.

At the middle of the productivity ladder sits manufacturing. The sector has a much higher productivity level than agriculture and can accommodate, in large numbers, the kind of labor that is abundant in the country. Nigeria’s rising population (which is projected to reach 428 million by 2050), the existence of mineral resources, and the adoption of a single market in Africa—the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)—present a case for why manufacturing would thrive in Nigeria. The priority, therefore, for the incoming government must be to address the burgeoning infrastructure deficit and inadequate power supply, which limit the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. In addition, the government will need to develop an industrial policy that seeks to support the scale, efficiency, and competitiveness of local firms within the manufacturing sector; bearing in mind that developing the sector is key to building economic resilience against vulnerability and future shocks. Such policies must be integrated with Nigeria’s AfCFTA strategy and support transition of small-scale firms that are often the drivers of job creation in the country.

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Nigeria’s economic hardship: A call for humanitarian gestures

Nigeria, the giant of Africa, is facing unprecedented economic hardship that has left millions of its citizens struggling to make ends meet. The confluence of…

Nigeria, the giant of Africa, is facing unprecedented economic hardship that has left millions of its citizens struggling to make ends meet. The confluence of various factors, including the global economic downturn, dwindling oil revenues, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has exacerbated an already challenging situation. In these trying times, it is imperative for both well-to-do individuals and the government to step up and extend a helping hand to those in need.

The economic challenges faced by Nigeria are multi-faceted. The nation’s heavy reliance on oil exports has made it susceptible to fluctuations in global oil prices. When oil prices plummeted, as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s revenue stream took a massive hit. This, coupled with longstanding issues like corruption and mismanagement of resources, has led to a dire economic situation.

Unemployment rates are soaring, and inflation is making it increasingly difficult for ordinary Nigerians to afford the bare necessities. Families are struggling to put food on the table, and access to healthcare and education is becoming more of a luxury than a right. The economic hardship has left vulnerable populations, such as widows, orphans, and the elderly, in dire straits.

At this critical juncture, well-to-do individuals in Nigeria have a moral obligation to extend their resources to help those in need. Philanthropic gestures from individuals and private sector entities can make a significant impact on alleviating suffering. This includes providing financial aid, donating food and essential supplies, and supporting local initiatives that aim to empower communities.

Furthermore, successful business leaders and entrepreneurs can create job opportunities through investments and expansion, thus contributing to reducing the alarming unemployment rates in the country. By doing so, they not only aid the needy but also strengthen the economy in the long run.

The Nigerian government bears a fundamental responsibility to address the economic hardships plaguing the nation. Comprehensive policies and strategies should be implemented to stimulate economic growth, reduce poverty, and create a more equitable society.

This may include investments in infrastructure development, diversification of the economy beyond oil, and the establishment of social safety nets to protect vulnerable citizens. Additionally, there must be a commitment to transparency and accountability to tackle corruption and mismanagement of public funds, which have long hindered progress.

The most effective response to Nigeria’s current economic hardship is a collaborative effort between well-to-do individuals and the government. The government should create an enabling environment for philanthropic activities, offering incentives to encourage private sector support for social causes.

Moreover, well-to-do individuals and philanthropic organisations can work alongside the government to identify areas of need and develop sustainable solutions. This synergy will maximise the impact of humanitarian gestures, creating a more resilient and prosperous society.

Nigeria is facing a severe economic crisis that demands urgent attention and action. Well-to-do individuals and the government must join forces to extend humanitarian gestures to the needy during this trying moment. This not only reflects the spirit of Ubuntu, “I am because we are,” but also lays the foundation for a more inclusive and prosperous Nigeria. Together, we can navigate these challenging times and build a brighter future for all citizens. 

Usman Abdullahi Koli, ( [email protected] ) 

VERIFIED: It is now possible to live in Nigeria and earn salary in US Dollars with premium domains, you can earn as much as $12,000 (₦18 Million). Click here to start.

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Nigeria's economic woes: what went wrong for African nation

President Tinubu is struggling to tackle soaring inflation after 'shock therapy' of ending fuel subsidies

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Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in almost 30 years, with widespread unrest and anger over soaring prices and stagnant wages.

Annual inflation is "nearing 30%" and the currency is "in freefall", said CNBC , prompting "protests across the country over the weekend" against the government's reforms.

Nigeria is Africa's largest economy but half of its population of 210 million "is younger than 18", said the Financial Times (FT). If the difficulties for working Nigerians continue then further "social unrest could follow", with the country's largest confederation of trade unions threatening a nationwide strike.

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How did Nigeria get here?

Though inflation is affecting economies around the world, Nigeria's economic hardship was exacerbated by reforms brought in by President Bola Tinubu, who took office in May last year.

Nigerians have long paid "some of the cheapest petrol prices in the world" thanks to subsidies, something the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other "international pressure" encouraged the new government to scrap and replace them with a "market-based pricing mechanism", said the FT.

Tinubu scrapped the fuel subsidy immediately after becoming president to "general surprise but plaudits from the international community", the paper said. In his "attempt to embrace economic orthodoxy", he also removed the naira currency peg against the dollar.

The president argued the subsidy was a "huge drain on public finances", said the BBC , and that the money (15% of the country's budget) could be "better used elsewhere". 

However, the sudden removal of the subsidy caused fuel prices to soar, while other costs rose as companies passed on the now inflated "transportation and energy costs to the consumer". The removal of the currency peg also proved disastrous. The naira has lost 70% of its value against the dollar since Tinubu took office. It means the cost of imported goods has rocketed, and Nigeria "relies heavily on imports to meet the needs of its rapidly growing population", said CNBC.

The president has also partly blamed the legacy of the previous government for the economic catastrophe, the BBC said, having asked the "country's central bank for short-term loans to cover spending amounting to $19bn", which further fuelled inflation.

What is the government doing to fix it?

Though the IMF called for the end of the fuel subsidy, a lack of "measures to cushion the effect of shock therapy" has resulted in the turmoil in which Nigeria now finds itself, said the FT.

With inflation "fueling widespread hardship", the government is risking mass strikes as it is "yet to implement cost-of-living adjustments" it promised last October, said Alexander Onukwue on Semafor .

It has implemented some emergency measures to try to relieve some of the suffering, including "the establishment of a board charged with controlling and regulating food prices", the BBC said. It is also distributing widely from the national grain reserve, though critics have suggested the "method of food distribution" means that "much of it does not reach poor families". Poorer households additionally receive "a cash transfer of 25,000 naira ($16; £13) a month", though given inflation it is an amount that "doesn't go very far".

President Tinubu continues to argue that Nigeria will benefit economically in the long run, but there are signs that "government resolve is wobbling" on the fuel subsidy, said the FT. Petrol pump prices are still below the cost of importing petrol, pointing to what the IMF suggests is "the quiet reintroduction of 'an implicit subsidy'". The government, however, has "not publicly acknowledged the move".

"Violence and insecurity in many rural areas" are compounding the pressures, said CNBC, and there looks to be no quick solution, with inflation predicted to peak in the second quarter of 2024.

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Richard Windsor is a freelance writer for The Week Digital. He began his journalism career writing about politics and sport while studying at the University of Southampton. He then worked across various football publications before specialising in cycling for almost nine years, covering major races including the Tour de France and interviewing some of the sport’s top riders. He led Cycling Weekly’s digital platforms as editor for seven of those years, helping to transform the publication into the UK’s largest cycling website. He now works as a freelance writer, editor and consultant.

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Causes and Implications of Worsening Insecurity in Nigeria: Developing a Cure Through the Law

• First Online: 01 January 2023

Cite this chapter

• Nicholas O. Agbo 5  

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Nigeria is presently enmeshed in a rising insecurity of unimaginable dimension. On April 26, 2021 Boko Haram killed 30 Nigerian soldiers in Sokoto. Several terror groups ranging from Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, bandits, jihadist, kidnappers, etc., now waste human life more easier than one can waste a mere animal. The entire Nigerian citizenry now literally sleep with two eyes open, emasculated by the fear of these terror groups and the pains and destruction they are capable of unleashing on innocent law-abiding citizens. In the wake of all these, the economy has receded deep into the wood as the national legal tender continues its astronomical downward plunge. This paper seeks to interrogate the sources, and implication of the rising state of insecurity in the nation with a view to finding possible solutions through law. The key recommendations of the paper will be an immediate return to true federalism, strict adherence to the rule of law, vigorous enforcement of the financial crimes laws as well as enacting more efficacious one such as the Unexplained Wealth Orders as a tool for reviving the dead war against corruption, immediate enactment of a law to establish State Police, codification of moral values and ethics and embarking upon moral rearmament of the citizenry, redressing of obvious past and present wrongs and placement of merit over mediocrity.

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Agbo, N.O. (2023). Causes and Implications of Worsening Insecurity in Nigeria: Developing a Cure Through the Law. In: Duruigbo, E., Chibueze, R., Gozie Ogbodo, S. (eds) International Law and Development in the Global South . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13741-9_3

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Economic Hardship Persists as Petrol Sells for N761, Diesel N1,566, Kerosene N1,875 in Parts of Nigeria

Emmanuel Addeh  in Abuja

The economic hardship faced by Nigerians has continued, with fuel prices continuing to soar in March 2024, driven mainly by the current economic reforms embarked upon by the Bola Tinubu administration, the dynamics of international energy rates as well as Nigeria’s inability to refine its fuels locally.

Latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showing the prices of major fuels across Nigeria, indicated that last month, petrol sold for as high as N761 in parts of Nigeria, specifically in Taraba, while diesel retailed for N1,566 in Edo and kerosene, seen as the fuel of the poor, was offered for N1,875 per litre.

For other energy sources, essentially cooking gas, Kano recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, with N7,609.00.

A naturally endowed country, Nigeria has the highest natural gas reserves in Africa, owning, by last week’s assessment of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), over 33 per cent of Africa’s total stock of gas, with about 209.5 TCF.

On the other hand, Nigeria is the continent’s biggest producer of oil and holds the second largest reserves in Africa with over 37.5 billion barrels, just behind Libya, which holds up to 48 billion barrels of the resource in reserves.

Despite these, the country has been unable to fully harness the God-given resources, mostly blaming lack of investment, assets vandalism, outright sabotage, lack of gas transportation infrastructure, among others, for the challenge.

 For close to a decade the country has almost not produced a drop of fuel, because all its refineries are dilapidated.

However, the Dangote refinery, which has begun partial operations as well as the expected coming on stream of the Port Harcourt refinery, will, to some extent mitigate the wholesale importation of products from Europe.

In all, the NBS data indicated that the average retail price paid by consumers for petrol for the month of March 2024 was N696.79, indicating a 163.65 per cent increase when compared to the value recorded in March 2023 , which was N264.29.

“On state profile analysis, Taraba state had the highest average retail price for Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), at N761.92, Yobe and Adamawa States were next, with N749.09 and N735.00, respectively.

“On the other side, Lagos, Oyo and Ogun States had the lowest average retail prices for petrol, at N630.75, N645.88 and N651.25 respectively. Lastly, on zonal profile, the North-east zone had the highest average retail price of N732.37, while the South-west zone had the lowest price of N654.24,” the figures showed.

Before the removal of subsidy by the current administration, petrol was selling for N195 in most parts of the country.

For diesel, the average retail price paid by consumers increased by 59.51 per cent on a year-on-year basis from a lower cost of N840.81 per litre recorded in the corresponding month of last year, March 2023, to a higher cost of N1,341.16 per litre in March 2024.

On a month-on-month basis, an increase of 6.69 per cent was recorded from N1,257.06 in the preceding month of February 2024 to an average of N1,341.16 in March 2024.

“Looking at the variations in the state prices, the top three states with the highest average price of the product in March 2024 included: Edo State (N1,566.67), Jigawa State (N1,533.33) and Cross River (N1,532.71).

Nigeria’s inflation hit 32.2 per cent in March, a level last seen about three decades ago, as the market prices of food remained elevated, driven partly by  rising energy and transportation costs.

But NBS listed the states with the top three lowest prices of diesel as Plateau State (N1067.25), Niger State (N1140.00) and Adamawa State (N1175.00). The zonal representation of average price of diesel showed that South-south had the highest price of N1419.35 while North-central zone had the lowest price N1230.98 when compared with other zones.

Also, the average retail price per litre of kerosene paid by consumers in March 2024 was N1,354.40. However, an a year-on-year basis, the average retail price per litre of the product rose by 18.55 per cent from N1,142.46 in March 2023.

“On state profile analysis, the highest average price per litre in March 2024 was recorded in Kaduna with N1,875.00, followed by Benue with N1,773.74 and Niger with N1,719.36. On the other hand, the lowest price was recorded in Rivers with N1,070.79, followed by Sokoto with N1,095.33 and Kwara with N1,110.90.

“In addition, analysis by zones showed that the North-central recorded the highest average retail price per litre of kerosene with N1,497.13, followed by the North-east with N1,393.59, while the South-south recorded the lowest with N1,273.07,” it said.

 Adamawa recorded the highest average retail price per gallon of kerosene with N6,110.44, followed by Bauchi with N5,922.30 and Yobe with N5,800.69, while Delta recorded the lowest price with N4,039.14, followed by Abuja and Enugu with N4,300.00 and N4,430.95 respectively.

The price of gas also continued to rise last month, as the average price for refilling a 5kg cylinder increased by 7.10 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N6,154.50 recorded in February 2024 to N6,591.62 in March 2024.

On a year-on-year basis, this increased by 42.97 per cent from N4,610.48 in March 2023. On state profile analysis, Kano recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of gas, with N7,609.00, followed by Ogun with N7,363.64, and Akwa Ibom with N7,162.50.

On the other hand, Adamawa recorded the lowest price with N5,312.50, followed by Taraba and Zamfara with N5,375.00 and N5,550.00 respectively.

The average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder gas also increased by 5.77 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N15,060.38 in February 2024 to N15,929.04 in March 2024 while on a year-on-year basis, this rose by 55.22 per cent from N10,262.56 in March 2023.

On state profile analysis, Sokoto recorded the highest average retail price for the refilling of a 12.5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) with N17,833.33, followed by Osun with N17,588.46 and Anambra with N17,417.65.

In October last year, the federal government ordered the stoppage of the 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax  (VAT) on cooking to reduce prices. But the impact of that decision has not been felt in the market.

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Nigeria unveils revamped economic management structure amid rising hardship

Posted: 29 March 2024 | Last updated: 29 March 2024

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday announced an overhaul of Nigeria's economic governance intended to ease financial hardship and boost productivity, establishing a multi-layered framework to bolster coordination, planning and implementation. FRANCE 24's Sam Olukoya reports.

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