Inflation rate soars to 24.08% in July

COMFORT EKELEME, Business Editor and Cyril Mbah, Bureau Chief , Abuja.

 

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday announced that inflation rose from 22.79% in June 2023 to 24.08% in July 2023.

This was contained in its report titled: “CPI and inflation report July 2023.”

The NBS said: “In July 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 24.08% relative to June 2023 headline inflation rate which was 22.79%.”

According to the report, looking at the movement, the July 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.29% points when compared to June 2023 headline inflation rate.

It added on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 4.44% points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2022, which was 19.64%.

NBS noted this shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in July 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., July 2022).

Average basic expenditures on foods and other necessities by Nigerians have continued to increase, further eroding people’s ability to save or invest.

The report indicated that inflation rate rose by 129 basis points to 24.08 per cent in July 2023 as against 22.79 per cent in June 2023.

A breakdown showed that the rise in headline inflation was driven by general increases in prices across all segments, particularly food items and transport fares.

The report showed that food inflation was above average with increase of 173 basis points to 26.98 per cent in July 2023 as against 25.25 per cent in June 2023.

The growth in food inflation underlined increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fruits, feats, vegetables, milk, cheese, and eggs among others.

 

Also, core inflation rose by 41 basis points to 20.47 per cent in July 2023 compared with 20.06 per cent in the previous month.

The report showed that the highest increases were recorded in prices of other necessities such as passenger transport by air, passenger transport by road, vehicle spare parts, medical services, maintenance, and repair of personal transport equipment among others.

.As CPPE calls for urgent fixing of productivity constraints

.Says high rate having devastating effect on small businesses

Meanwhile, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has called for urgent fixing of production and productivity constraints as well as stable exchange rate by ensuring liquidity in the forex market.

This is even as the Centre maintained that the surging inflation has had a devastating effect on citizens welfare and the health of small businesses.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday announced that inflation rose from 22.79per cent in June to 24.08per cent in July 2023.

This was contained in its report titled: “CPI and inflation report July 2023.”

Director/Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf in a statement

said there is the urgent need to tackle insecurity, accelerate efforts to ensure domestic refining of petroleum products and fast-tracking tax and fiscal reforms to curb escalating deficit spending.

He said the government should give producers and citizens some relief,  adding that the government should tweak the tariff policies by granting concessionary import duty on intermediate products for industrialists, especially those in the food processing segments of the agriculture value chain.

Speaking further he affirmed that food inflation maintained its upward trajectory, accelerating to 27 per cent.

He said “evidently, we are yet to see an abatement to the key factors fueling inflation.

“The inflationary pressures have intensified.  Some of these factors are global, others are domestic.

“These factors include the depreciating exchange rate, spike in energy prices, rising transportation costs,  logistics challenges,   forex market illiquidity, hike in diesel cost,  insecurity in many farming communities and structural bottlenecks impeding productivity.

“These are largely supply side and policy concerns.

“But the petrol price increase following the fuel subsidy removal and the sharp depreciation in the exchange rate were dominant factors,” he said.

Dr. Yusuf further maintained that mounting inflationary pressures have the following consequences for the economy: Weakening of purchasing power of citizens as real incomes are eroded thus aggravating poverty incidence.

“Escalating production costs which negatively impacts profitability,

erosion of  shareholder value in many businesses.

“Weakening of investors’ confidence. Declines in manufacturing capacity utilization as a consequence of weakening sales and erosion of profit margins.

“Tackling inflation requires urgent government intervention to address the challenges bedeviling the supply side of the economy”, he added.

.Panelists raise alarm over looming social unrest due to rising poverty, hunger

However, a roundtable discussion convened by the Department of Political Science, University of Abuja has raised alarm over the looming social unrest that may be triggered by increasing inflation, poverty, rising hopelessness among Nigerians and the seeming disinterest on the part of the ruling class to improve situations in the country.

 

Speakers at the discussion session, who were drawn from the academic community, civil society groups and the military establishment listed the causes of poverty and inflation and particularly identified the neo-liberal economic policies dictated by the World Bank and the IMF that were adopted by past leaders since the 1980s as then major culprit.

 

The brain-storming group centred the discussion on a 189-page book titled: “The face of poverty in Nigeria,” produced by Yusuf Bala Usman Institute with support from the Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung Foundation and concluded by advocating that stronger interventions must be adopted to tackle pervasive corruption, failed government policies and programmes, gender discrimination and climate change problems to improve living conditions in Nigeria.

Dr. Ola Jumoke, a gender desk officer at the National Defence College kicked off the two-hour discussion by stating that poverty has been feminized and deepened in Nigeria through harsh economic policies of several governments.

Jumoke, who was one of the book reviewers, insisted that the failure of many governments in the past to boldly promote and nurture the agricultural sector, among other failures, to ensure food security also contributed to poverty apart from the part played by bad governance.

The speaker concluded by vehemently suggesting that time has come for couples to control their birth rate through family planning or child spacing methods to avoid over-population and increased food shortages.

The second reviewer, Dr. Barnabas Ekpo, an associate professor at the Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna agreed with the points raised by the first presenter on the causes of poverty but went further to accuse the elite especially the ruling class and the wealthy in the society of fueling and sustaining poverty because depriving the people of the essential or basic needs of existence serves their personal interests and the interests of foreign collaborators.

He observed that the heat of poverty has become so unbearable on the nation’s population and warned the elite to beware of a likely backlash in the shape of civil unrest which may break out should the situation continue unchecked.

Former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Abuja, Professor Yusufu Zoaka, who anchored the programme said Nigeria should adopt the Chinese model of alleviating poverty because it has worked so perfectly in that country where more than 5 million citizens have been successfully pulled out of poverty in the past three years.

Professor Zoaka challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prove his claim that he knows the level of suffering that Nigerians are enduring by doing something more practical and productive to relieve the people from the burden of suffering created by poverty, otherwise, the president’s utterance would be regarded as a mere political statement.

Poverty, he stated, has been personified and many Nigerians have become walking corpses due to rising levels of poverty, inflation and deprivation in the land, even as he condemned the confusion that has trailed the foreign exchange and other monetary policy sectors of the economy under the present administration.

According to Professor Zoaka, “Poverty is a reality in Nigeria and it is promoted by the elite class for selfish ends. The poor people have been driven to the wall now and this may cause unimaginable social unrests against the rich and the elite class if poverty is not checked.”

Subsequent speakers at the occasion such as Professor Iro Iro Uke, Professor Wafure Gonna Obida, who is the Dean, Social Sciences Department and the Country Director, Rosa Luxemburg  Shifting in Nigeria, Mrs. Angela Odah insisted that bad leadership and anti-people policies are largely to be blamed for the problems in the country since Nigeria has sufficient material and human resources to grow into the super-power club but our leaders chose to cripple Nigeria to the point that it is now regarded as a poor country.

In a brief interview after the presentations, Mrs. Odah harped on the need for the new administration to steer the country out of poverty with better policy initiatives and people-friendly programmes.

Mrs. Odah said that Rosa Luxemburg  Shifting will continue to support and promote ideas and programmes that elevate social engagement and discourse leading to economic and political emancipation of Nigerians.

In a related development, renewed efforts have been launched by concerned Nigerians and foreign partners to check the frequent annual conflicts and blood letting between farmers and herders, which has claimed the lives of several citizens and resulted in the loss of properties worth millions of Naira throughout the country.

Initiators of the peace campaign launched their renewed effort at tolerance and harmony through a 118-page book titled: “The root causes of farmers, herders clashes in north central Nigeria,” written by Phangshak Musa Suchi and Salle Yaks Musa and sponsored by the international agency, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

At the public presentation of the book in Abuja, which attracted a large circle of FCT residents, Reviewer Oluyeri Nenadi Rahab said the authors painted a gloomy picture of large scale deaths and destruction of properties within mostly the seven north central states especially Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau because assailants and victims have undying urge to revenge any attacks on them.

According to the reviewer, the book simply scratched the problems of farmers,herders clashes on the surface although it provided opportunity for further research into the underlying causes of the conflict apart from pointing the way out of the problem.

“The root causes of the conflicts were identified to be the same in every community although, there were some noticeable peculiarities in the result of the clashes.

“These include the destruction of farm crops by Fulani herders, rustling of cattle, intolerance, impatience, aggressiveness from both sides, influx of foreign herders into the country and the marginalisation of Fulani herders in the political affairs of communities.

The book accordingly recommended that concerted efforts involving local, state and federal government agencies as well as civil society actors should be launched in every community to find lasting solutions to the farmers, herders clashes.

The Country Director, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Nigeria, Angela Odah, In an interview, said the publication was sponsored to provide lasting solutions to annual conflicts caused by encroachment on grazing areas and to build confidence and trust between the warring ethnic groups and communities.

Mrs. Odah promised the continued support of the agency in sponsoring worthwhile initiatives that promote peace, unity and the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens and the country.