Grace Adama puts her earrings on in her two-room flat before grabbing her handbag and leaving for work in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.<\/p>\n
The health NGO worker’s 135,000 naira ($99) monthly salary is \u200bnearly double the country’s minimum wage, but she said life keeps getting tougher as her salary fails to keep pace with rocketing costs.<\/p>\n
“If I’m paid today, my salary \u200cstays with me just for one week,” she told Reuters. “If you see the cost of living, house, electricity, everything has gone up.”<\/p>\n
Living standards for millions in Africa’s largest oil exporter have crumbled in the past three years as the government of President Bola Tinubu pushed through painful reforms, including\u00a0fuel subsidy removals,\u00a0naira devaluation\u00a0and electricity subsidy cuts.<\/p>\n
The government and investors say the reforms were essential to pull the country back from the edge of fiscal crisis and would pay off in \u200bthe long run.<\/p>\n
But now, it costs Nigerians more than double to make the staple jollof rice than it did when Tinubu took office, according to an index by Lagos-based SBM \u200bIntelligence which tracks the prices of ingredients which go into making the dish. Petrol prices are six times higher following the scrapping of the subsidy and \u2060as the naira weakened and global oil prices surged.<\/p>\n
NIGERIANS BRISTLE, INVESTORS CHEER REFORMS<\/strong><\/p>\n The World Bank estimates just over half of Nigeria’s population were in poverty last year, up from roughly 42% in 2022.<\/p>\n Citizens’ \u200bstruggles under Tinubu, nicknamed “T-Pain” by some bristling under the rising costs, contrast sharply with investor optimism.<\/p>\n “This is the most positive investors have been about Nigeria probably in the last two decades,” said Thys Louw, portfolio \u200bmanager at investment firm Ninety One. “They’re taking the tough medicine now.”<\/p>\n The chasm between those like Adama, squeezed by costs, and booming financial markets, adds a new angle to a country already defined by contrasts: glittering, cosmopolitan Lagos and militant-threatened Maiduguri in the northeast; marble-laden mega mansions and tin-roofed shacks housing entire families.<\/p>\n Tinubu must convince voters that the benefits of the reforms will trickle down to them, too, before\u00a0January’s elections.<\/p>\n “I can’t even send money to my aged mother at home…(in \u200bBenue state, several hours away). I can’t do a lot of things that I used to do before,” Adama said, adding that she had cut meat from her diet and moved to a smaller \u200bapartment but still relied on short-term loans to pay bills.<\/p>\n BOOMING STOCK MARKET, LIMITED LOANS<\/strong><\/p>\n Tinubu’s term followed eight years of unorthodox economic policies under President Muhammadu Buhari, including import bans to boost local industry, tight currency controls and \u200cpetrol subsidies. This \u2060created shortages of needed imports, made it tough to get money out of the country or access foreign exchange and fuel subsidies drained\u00a0$10 billion from government coffers\u00a0in 2022 alone.<\/p>\n “We were living in fiscal illusions,” Nigeria’s Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele told a recent event in Abuja. “We needed to stop deceiving ourselves so the country can move forward.”<\/p>\n Tinubu’s government says reforms are bearing fruit, pointing to the Nigerian stock exchange, up close to 60% this year, the transfer of oil assets to local companies and the 2024 opening of the 650,000-barrel-per-day\u00a0Dangote oil refinery\u00a0just outside Lagos.<\/p>\n Capital inflows into Nigeria hit a six-year high of $23 billion last year, \u200baccording to the National Bureau of Statistics, reflecting \u200binvestor confidence.<\/p>\n But fewer than 5% of Nigerian adults \u2060invest in capital markets, the Nigerian bourse has said, and the inflows are concentrated in “hot money” \u2014 short-term Treasury bills and other financial assets that investors can quickly sell if trouble appears.<\/p>\n Businesses and individuals struggle to get affordable loans, with the\u00a0key central bank interest rate\u00a0at 26.5% as the bank battles near-16% \u200binflation.<\/p>\n Petrol prices nationally average roughly 1,600 naira ($1.18) per litre, lower than in neighbouring Ghana and Ivory Coast, but too high for many used to years \u200bof cheap fuel as their \u2060main government benefit.<\/p>\n “The solution for me is for government to bring the fuel price down,” Lagos food seller Eji Uchenna said. His customers can no longer afford to buy in bulk.<\/p>\n SITTING ON GUNPOWDER<\/strong><\/p>\n In June, federal workers rejected a proposed 100,000 naira minimum wage, threatening an indefinite nationwide strike. A June voter sentiment tracker by SBM Intelligence also showed 80% of Nigerians view the country as moving in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n Security tops concerns, with\u00a0kidnapping \u2060rife.<\/p>\n Still, SBM’s \u200bChief Executive Cheta Nwanze said the anger would not necessarily unseat Tinubu given a\u00a0fragmented opposition.<\/p>\n “The opposition is disunited, and… the only \u200bway the opposition beats Tinubu is if they are united,” Nwanze said.<\/p>\n Louw said if government sticks with its policies, workers should start to benefit as inflation falls, allowing lower interest rates.<\/p>\n Oyedele acknowledged the government must do more to ensure “prosperity for all Nigerians”.<\/p>\n “When \u200binequality persists, it becomes dangerous. It’s like sitting on gunpowder; it explodes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grace Adama puts her earrings on in her two-room flat before grabbing her handbag and leaving for work in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The health NGO worker’s 135,000 naira ($99) monthly salary is \u200bnearly double the country’s minimum wage, but she said life keeps getting tougher as her salary fails to keep pace with rocketing costs. 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