The poorest of the poor
The cost of living is throwing over 50% of Nigerian citizens into poverty
Good morning, Big Brains. Is power back up in your neighbourhood? Asking ‘cause I need to know if it's just me the neps have beef with. Anyway, it’s another week to do world-class things. Start by catching up on the news you missed during the weekend.
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This Week’s Big Question - “What’s the first thing you’re buying on salary day?” Share your responses with us and if we think it’s fun enough, we’ll feature them in the newsletter :) so be on the lookout.
Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:
Fuel prices are on the rise in Nigeria, so is poverty
Civil workers in Lagos and Rivers are getting extra money
Don’t blame the national grid, blame the transformer
The Big Deal
Fuel prices are on the rise in Nigeria, so is poverty
This is not a drill, Nigeria needs a functioning government ASAP. Over the weekend, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) dropped a report that would either force you to consider trading your nationality for literally anything or drop a few cuss words for you-know-who. If numbers have ever lied, that’s not the case with this report because it was drafted based on data collected across 774 local governments in all 36 states.
In September 2024, the average price Nigerians paid for petrol was ₦1,030.46. That's a 64.55% jump from what we were paying around this time last year ₦626.21. When you compare it to last month (August 2024), the average petrol price jumped by 24.08%, going from ₦830.46 to ₦1,030.46.
On the state-by-state breakdown, Katsina led the race for the highest petrol price at ₦1,096.15. Ebonyi and Akwa Ibom followed closely with ₦1,090.94 and ₦1,085.71 respectively. On the flip side, Yobe, Sokoto, and Kebbi had the lowest prices, with Yobe at ₦939.38, Sokoto at ₦961.67, and Kebbi at ₦986.67.
As for the zones, the North-West had the most expensive petrol at ₦1,036.52, while the North-East enjoyed the "lowest" at ₦1,014.55.
Why is this a big deal?
Nigerians are getting poorer and the cost of living is getting higher. We don’t expect you to take our word for it but you should believe the World Bank because they know a thing or two about this kind of thing.
According to the World Bank’s latest Development Update on Nigeria, 129 million people in the country are now living below the poverty line. The update, released by the World Bank, in Abuja on Thursday, revealed that poverty has jumped from 40.1% in 2018 to 56% in 2024.
With Nigeria’s growing population, poverty will be on a crazy rise in 2024. A big part of the problem is that the Nigerian economy has been struggling and inflation has been on the rise.
The report said “With growth proving too slow to outpace inflation, poverty has risen sharply. Since 2018, the share of Nigerians living below the national poverty line is estimated to have risen sharply from 40.1% to 56.0%.”
A 24% increase in fuel prices is crazy work, especially when 56% of the population is already living in poverty. This spike threatens to push even middle-class Nigerians closer to poverty if the cost of living keeps rising above their income. The only people truly benefiting are the people who put the economy in this mess in the first place.
Civil servants in Lagos and Rivers are getting extra money
Rivers State is now going band for band with Lagos state — or should we say minimum wage to minimum wage.
Last Wednesday, Governor Sanwo-Olu approved ₦85,000 minimum wage for civil workers in Lagos state. A few days later, Governor Fubara of Rivers State took a page out of Sanwo’s book and decided to do the same.
Governor Fubara spent the whole day in a meeting with the workers’ union at Government House in Port Harcourt on October 18, 2024, to seal the deal. After the meeting with the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, George Nwaeke, the Head of the Rivers State Civil Service, announced that the minimum wage will take effect in November 2024.
Nwaeke added that the government is still working out how to handle possible payment of arrears, with a technical committee already on the job to sort out the details.
Alex Agwanwor, Chairman of the Rivers State NLC, also added that Rivers State's approving the new minimum wage despite having less internally generated revenue than Lagos, shows real sacrifice. While Lagos operates on a ₦2 trillion budget for 2024, Rivers has ₦800 billion, showing Fubara’s commitment to workers in his state. With these two governors setting the pace, we hope other governors will be inspired to do the same.
Don’t blame the national grid, blame the transformer
This is probably the last thing you want to be reminded of at the beginning of a new week but the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has confirmed the cause of the "temporary disturbance" in the national grid that occurred at 8:15 AM on Saturday, the third in just one week. Ndidi Mbah, TCN's GM of Public Affairs, didn’t give the reasons for the first two grid disruptions but he explained that Saturday’s collapse was caused by the explosion of a current transformer at the 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation. Luckily, the protection system kicked in and quickly shut down the busbars to contain the explosion and prevent any fire or further damage to nearby equipment.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) also confirmed that the transformer explosion triggered the nationwide blackout. We’re not sure if another transformer wouldn’t blow up this week and throw the whole country into darkness this week but for the sake of our sanity, we hope not.
The Big Picks
Everything We Know About CNG in Nigeria and the Edo Car Explosion: Since the explosion of a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered car in Edo state on Wednesday, October 17, Nigerians have been asking questions about the safety of CNG in Nigeria. We asked an expert to address all your safety concerns.
#EndSARS Memorial: Police Disperse Crowd, Arrest Demonstrators In Lagos: Protesters gathered at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos on Sunday to mark four years since the #EndSARS protests. However, reports surfaced that police officers broke up the gathering and arrested some of the demonstrators.
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