An Average Nigerian Spends 101% Of Wage On Food — Report

The average Nigerian spends more than he earns to survive, as 101 percent of his wages is spent on the most basic need — food.

This was discovered in a report by the Institute of Development Studies, which disclosed that Africa's largest economy now ranks second globally among countries spending the most of their income on food, ranking only behind war-torn Syria where 177 percent of income is spent on food.

As the average Nigerian's income fails to meet up with the quickly surging inflation, a large portion of the Nigerian populace is trapped in a seemingly unending cycle of spending all they make on feeding expenditure. This means indirectly that the average Nigerian is in one form of debt or the other as there is still a long list of expenses to cater for. This trend also gives light to the rate at which Nigerians are falling below the poverty line.

For better understanding, while citizens of Syria, Nigeria and Ethiopia are spending such monstrous portions of their income on food, citizens of Qatar, the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand spend only 8%, 9%, 10% and 11% respectively.

According to the 2019 consumption expenditure by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the total household expenditure in Nigeria is N40 trillion out of which N22.7 trillion is spent on food alone.

Although inflation has been reported to have slowed for the third straight month in June, at 17.75 percent, there is no relief for Nigerians as food prices have not stopped rising.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), food inflation rose to 21.83 percent in June 2021 from 15.18 percent at the same time last year. Food prices accounted for the over 60 percent increase in headline inflation between 2020 and 2021.

The soaring food prices have been a result of the worsening farmer-herder clashes, weakening currency and shortage of dollars for foreign exchange.

The World Bank reported that Nigeria’s surging inflation rate has pushed 7 million Nigerians into poverty while estimating that about 18 percent of adults did not eat for an entire day compared to 6 percent recorded before the pandemic, a sign of worsening poverty.

Also, Nigeria recorded the second-highest unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2020 at 33.3 percent, reinforcing the weakening purchasing power of the average citizen.