Nigerians Sacrifice Cars As Cost Of Living Crisis Worsens
The price of petrol has risen more than fivefold since President Bola Tinubu took office in May 2023.
The country’s economic crisis and soaring petrol prices have forced Bolaji Emmanuel to give up his driver and his Honda Pilot utility vehicle.
He is struggling with spiking living costs.
Emmanuel is not alone. Many in Africa’s most populous country are abandoning their cars as the costs strain disposable income.
Maize is displayed by a trader at the market in Jibia on February 18, 2024. – Nigeria, which shares 1,600 km of border with its neighbor, was until now one of Niger’s main trading partners with $193 million in exports in 2022 according to the United Nations (electricity, tobacco, cement, etc). Since the border closure, it has even been a double whammy for the local population, who have seen food prices explode under the combined effect of new movement restrictions and galloping inflation after the Nigerian president , Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in office since May, implemented economic reforms which plunged the country into crisis. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)
The price of petrol has risen more than fivefold since President Bola Tinubu took office in May 2023.
“I parked it at my son’s house. I use public transport now,” Emmanuel, a 72-year-old retired health worker, told AFP. “It is not convenient, but it is what the economy demands.”
People buy and sell food at the Illaje market, in Bariga, Lagos, on June 29, 2021. Since the start of the pandemic in 2019, food prices have risen by an average of more than 22%, according to official statistics, and feeding a family properly has become a daily challenge. Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP
Since coming to power, Tinubu has ended a costly fuel subsidy and freed up the naira currency, in reforms that government officials and analysts say will revive the economy and attract investors.
But in the short term, Nigeria has seen one of its worst crises in decades with inflation at a three-decade high.
A litre of petrol sold for around 195 naira just before Tinubu took office. The price rose to at least 998 naira ($0.61) per litre in Lagos and 1,030 naira in the capital, Abuja, at the beginning of October. It can go for as much as 1,300 naira elsewhere.
Inflation reached an almost three-decade high of 34.19 per cent in June. It has since slowed to 32.7 per cent in September.
A man waits for costumers while selling clothes at the Balogun Market in Lagos on December 18, 2023. – Christmas and year-end celebrations are marred by the economic crisis and soaring prices in Nigeria. Poverty in the most populous country in Africa has risen in 2023, affecting 104 million people, compared to 79 million five years earlier, according to the World Bank. The prices of food items and basic goods have skyrocketed following an increasing inflation rate and devaluation of the Naira, making daily life increasingly difficult for millions of Nigerians. (Photo by Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP)
The slump in purchasing power is piling more hardship on locals, with more than 40 per cent of the population living in poverty, according to the World Bank. That figure is expected to rise in 2024 and 2025, before it stabilises in 2026.
The Nigerian middle class, which made up about 20 per cent of the population in 2020, now readily sacrifices the comfort of private cars for survival.
Car dealers in Lagos and Abuja told AFP that they had seen more and more people trading their fuel-guzzling cars and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for more efficient vehicles to cut costs.
“People are actually selling their big cars these days,” Maji Abubakar, a car dealer in Abuja, told AFP. “The problem is that even if you put them on the market, there isn’t much demand for them.”
“It has been more than a year since I sold a car with an eight-cylinder engine, and the major reason is the price of petrol,” he added.
A man waits for costumers while selling clothes at his stall in the Balogun Market in Lagos on December 18, 2023. – Christmas and year-end celebrations are marred by the economic crisis and soaring prices in Nigeria. Poverty in the most populous country in Africa has risen in 2023, affecting 104 million people, compared to 79 million five years earlier, according to the World Bank. The prices of food items and basic goods have skyrocketed following an increasing inflation rate and devaluation of the Naira, making daily life increasingly difficult for millions of Nigerians. (Photo by Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP)
With fewer cars on the road, even the notorious Lagos traffic, known as “go-slow”, has thinned out.
– Used or Chinese cars, bicycles –
Elijah Bello, a tech entrepreneur in the southern state of Ogun, has looked for a buyer for his Lexus RX 350 SUV for months.
He has since bought a smaller, energy-saving Toyota Corolla to replace it.
The trend, which began last year, “will intensify” and “we will see fewer cars on the roads”, said Bunmi Bailey, head of research at SBM Intelligence risk consultancy.
Bailey can fill his small car for 55,000 naira. “I can use it for two weeks for my normal home-to-work movement,” he told AFP, while his larger car consumes 110,000 naira worth of petrol in just eight days.
Buyers check some clothes while shopping at a stall in the Balogun Market in Lagos on December 18, 2023. – Christmas and year-end celebrations are marred by the economic crisis and soaring prices in Nigeria. Poverty in the most populous country in Africa has risen in 2023, affecting 104 million people, compared to 79 million five years earlier, according to the World Bank. The prices of food items and basic goods have skyrocketed following an increasing inflation rate and devaluation of the Naira, making daily life increasingly difficult for millions of Nigerians. (Photo by Benson Ibeabuchi / AFP)
The market for new cars has dropped by 10 to 14 percent in the last year, said Kunle Jaiyesinmi, deputy director at the Lagos-based CFAO Group, which specialises in automobile distribution.
“An SUV that sold for 40 to 45 million naira ($24,000 to $27,000) about two years ago, for now, if you want to negotiate the price, you see that it is within the range of 95 or 100 million ($57,000 to $60,000),” Jaiyesinmi told AFP.
But unyielding inflation and high exchange rates are steering more middle-class people away from used Japanese- and American-brand cars, toward increasingly popular Chinese-made ones.
Tiger nuts are sold at the market in Jibia on February 18, 2024. – Nigeria, which shares 1,600 km of border with its neighbor, was until now one of Niger’s main trading partners with $193 million in exports in 2022 according to the United Nations (electricity, tobacco, cement, etc). Since the border closure, it has even been a double whammy for the local population, who have seen food prices explode under the combined effect of new movement restrictions and galloping inflation after the Nigerian president , Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in office since May, implemented economic reforms which plunged the country into crisis.
Some are turning to bicycles, despite the lack of appropriate infrastructure in cities like Lagos, where car crashes are common.
“Sure, we notice (a rise in) cycling… for months since the fuel hike,” said Femi Thomas, head of FT Cycle Care, a Lagos-based organisation that promotes cycle use.
Shoe seller Bidemi Bello attends a costumer while selling sandals at her stall in the Balogun Market in Lagos on December 18, 2023. – Christmas and year-end celebrations are marred by the economic crisis and soaring prices in Nigeria. Poverty in the most populous country in Africa has risen in 2023, affecting 104 million people, compared to 79 million five years earlier, according to the World Bank. The prices of food items and basic goods have skyrocketed following an increasing inflation rate and devaluation of the Naira, making daily life increasingly difficult for millions of Nigerians.
Food delivery platform Glovo said it had recorded a growing interest in bicycle deliveries among its riders.
About 20 per cent of orders are delivered by bike, Chidera Akwuba, the group’s public relations manager in Nigeria, told AFP.
AFP
