The minimum wage in Nigeria is very low; it was recently increased from 30,000 Naira to 70,000 Naira per month, which is roughly equivalent to about 50 dollars. This sum is barely sufficient for someone to survive for a whole month, but many people are now used to living on borrowed funds, repaying loans when their salaries arrive and taking out new loans to make ends meet. Some individuals are still unable to clear all existing debts before taking on additional loans, thereby accumulating more debt.
The amount of money people spend on transportation monthly where I reside in the country is sometimes more than the minimum wage. The pump price for fuel has gone high, causing transport costs to also go up. Some people have resorted to using the back of trucks to go to work and back, so they can manage so as to reduce the cost of transportation. I often wonder how many people and families living on the minimum wage are coping with their lives, having children to feed, school fees to pay, house rent, clothing and other basic expenses. Having to spend more than 60% of their income on rent.
The cost of living in my country is very high; food is expensive, and transportation costs are high, affecting the cost of production and influencing the prices of goods and services in the market. People are only surviving in the country and not living their lives as they should.
A decent apartment in the city centre costs an average of one million five hundred thousand naira for a self-contained apartment. When you move a bit away from the city centre, you will likely find the same apartment for a price of a million naira. For a room with shared toilet and bathroom, one may be lucky to find an apartment like that for three hundred thousand for a year's rent. Dividing this amount by 12 months to see how much one will be spending monthly for rent, you will discover that even when the minimum wage is doubled, it is still not enough for a person to live a comfortable life in the country. Receiving double the minimum wage will probably cover just your housing and transportation, leaving the individual with little or nothing for food and other expenses.
Tripling the minimum wage, however, may make a lot of things a bit bearable, having to earn a sum of two million five hundred and twenty thousand a year, which will amount to about one thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars yearly. This, in reality, is nothing in the international market, but an individual living in Nigeria could survive on it, and still barely meet his daily and family needs.
The majority of people living in my country are living below the poverty line; not more than 20% of the country's population earns up to $1820 a year. Leaving the majority of individuals living on incomes that even beggars and unemployed individuals in some countries live far better and more stable lives than many employed individuals in my country. Saw a video this morning lamenting the high cost of living in the country, and how no matter what you earn right now, it is still not enough to give a decent living.
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