Nigeria’s first lady, Oluremi Tinubu, urged women to weather the country’s economic hardship by starting low-cost ventures such as selling akara, kuli-kuli, and roasted corn, portraying micro-enterprises as a practical path to self-reliance.
However, for many women who already earn a living from such businesses, the bigger challenge is not starting up, it is surviving a barrage of local government revenues, levies and enforcement drives that critics say are squeezing the very enterprises the government claims to be promoting.
Critics argue that Remi Tinubu’s advice shows a substantial disconnect from the harsh microeconomic realities currently facing everyday Nigerians and that the advice is a suboptimal solution to a systemic economic crisis.
Inflation and Erosion of Low-Capital Assumptions
Anti-first lady’s comments argue that due to hyperinflation, no business is truly “low-capital” anymore in Nigeria.
