Many Nigerians are going through difficult economic times, the latest survey by Nigeria’s leading polling agency, NOI Polls and BusinessDay has shown. In the poll released 10 August, 66% of Nigerians said that their economic conditions are have declined in the last three months. Another 15% said that it has not changed but 19% said that their economic situation has improved in the last three months.
However, 97% of the entire respondents to the NOI survey acknowledged that recent economic realities have had a negative effect of the general wellbeing of the average Nigerian. Specifically, 43% said that they have been affected by increase in prices of goods and services; 18% by the increase in petrol pump price; 10% by an increase in the cost of transportation; 8% by the devaluation and foreign exchange crisis; 7% by poor electricity supply; 4% by irregular payment of salaries; and 3% by increase in electricity tariff.
The finding confirm the rising inflation in the country as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which revealed that headline inflation in May 2016 shot up to 15.6 percent in July, the highest recorded in more than 6 years.
The survey shows that many Nigerians are have adopted various lifestyle changes to cope with increasingly difficult economic circumstances. Some of such strategies include: Cutting down on household expenses and luxury items; enduring the situation and seeking the face of God in prayers; adjusting family feeding patterns; creating alternative sources of income and engaging in subsistence agriculture.
Nigerians also requested that the government focuses its attention on ‘improving the economy’ (33 percent), ‘investing in agriculture’ (15 percent), ‘controlling the price of goods and services’ (14 percent) and ‘reducing the pump price of petrol‘ (10 percent).
