Economic palaver

When I think of when I was very young remembering some of the currencies we spend when we go to buy sweet, lucky or gowon nails made from sugar, heated into brown colour and left to solidify, I shake my head at the ugly situations we face in the country at the moment. Whatever it is that Nigeria is passing through didn't start overnight. It crept in gradually until it became glaring that we are in hot soup. According to Sam Ewing, he said Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair. I think the situation of Nigeria can be likened to that because the situation is becoming unreasonable and unbearable. When the leaders mismanage the country's resources, the first inflation that sets in is the devaluation of currency followed by others

Inflation in Nigeria has been an economic problem that comes and goes at all times but in recent years, we've been experiencing high inflation rates which has affected the country's economic stability. The price of commodities has skyrocketed and the minimum wages remain the same. If a worker was earning #100,000 when one bag of price was #20,000, it means he can afford 5 bags. Now that one bag is sold between 35 and 50 thousand Naira, without an increment in salary, the family buying 5 bags will not be able to afford that with the same salary earned. Cost of living becomes more expensive. Same goes to all other goods. Because of the high inflation, many service providers increase their wages to meet up with the current situations of things in the country

Looking into what is causing inflation in the country, we discovered that there are many factors. No Nigerian will forget how everyone in the country suffered in banks to withdraw their money. No cash inside the ATM. The few people that have cash buy from the bank cashiers and sell to the general public at an exorbitant rate. Imagine withdrawing #1000 and paying #500 as charges. They collect 50% of what you are withdrawing as the charges. Within this period, the price of commodities and transport hike up. Because of the devaluation of the Nigerian currency, the government changed some of the old currencies by printing new notes. That didn't help the situation. Bringing cashless policy isn't a bad idea but the system isn't strong enough to contain that. Network failure made many Nigerians to hate technology at that point and prefer transacting offline because bank apps and their ussd codes could not be used to transact without encountering errors. The devaluation of the currency also causes an increase in the cost of imports which also contributes to the high price of goods and services across the country

High demand for goods and services also affects the inflation rate in Nigeria. Some essential products were banned from entering Nigeria and we have less companies producing them. The more people demand for these products, the more the price goes up because of limited supply

The Nigerian government is trying to see that the inflation melts down by putting in place some measures part of which is to increase the supply of food and other essential commodities and also supporting the farmers to produce more food to reduce the price as they buy from them and sell at subsidized rate to the public

Also, the implementation of monetary policy to make the currency stable is part of the measures the government is taking to fight inflation that has hit the nation. I hpe it works out well as planned