Nigerian Business Owners Express Concern Over Surging Inflation, Urge For Intervention From The Government
Small business owners in Nigeria are expressing concern over the soaring inflation, which has reached its highest level at 31.70 percent. Some of these business owners highlighted the unbearable economic hardship and called for intervention from the Federal Government.
Abimbola David, the owner of a cashew nut factory, emphasized that the rising inflation has significantly raised production costs and urged the government to intervene.
He said,
“We have had to review our costs three times this year. The prices we used in January, February, and March are different because every single cost of production keeps increasing. Last year, a ton of cashew was N600,000 to N700,000 but now, it is selling for between one million naira to N1.2 million and that is without the cost of transportation.
” The black pepper we use for one of our cashew flavours is now N22,000 as against N7,000 we bought in October 2023, that is over 200 per cent increase. Oil that was selling at N35,000 is now N55,000, honey that was N50,000 is now selling for N55,000. Our rent has also gone up too .”
According to a report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as reported by NAN, Nigeria’s inflation rate surged to its peak in February 2024 based on the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) and inflation report.
The NBS disclosed that Nigeria’s headline inflation climbed to 31.70 percent in February 2024, marking an increase of 1.80 percentage points compared to the 29.90 percent recorded in January 2024.
Furthermore, the NBS highlighted that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate in February 2024 was 9.79 percent higher than the rate recorded in February 2023, which stood at 21.91 percent.
