…surging rents, transport costs shrink spending power
Nigeria’s households are cutting spending again as inflation pressure returns, with soaring food, rental, and transportation costs driving the squeeze.
Mary Chukwu, a secondary school teacher in Ketu – Lagos, now spends nearly her entire monthly salary commuting to work from Adamo in Ikorodu to Ketu. Higher rental costs had pushed her to move from residing in Ketu to Adamo in February.
“There is hardly anything left of my salary after subtracting transport and feeding for the month,” Chukwu said.
“I am just surviving, and sometimes I go to bed hungry, hoping for divine intervention,” she explained, noting that she was forced to relocate to Ikorodu – a suburb in Lagos owing to a 200 percent increase in her former rental fees at Ketu.
