Inflation: Nigerians paying more for service despite cut in consumption

Nigerians are paying more on utility bills despite cutting consumption, a clear indication of the growing cost of living in the country.

The Utility bills (E-bills) include payment pay for power and Pay TV subscriptions amongst other everyday utilities.

A data by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) seen by Ripples Nigeria on Tuesday revealed that Nigerians spent N1.95 trillion in 643.5 million different transactions in the first eight months of this year.

This surpassed the N1.66 trillion Nigerians spent on 830.7 million transactions in the same period last year.

This disparity clearly reflected the growing inflationary pressure faced by Nigerians in which the cost of services rises but real units of services required by customers decrease.

READ ALSO: Nigeria’s GDP slows to 3.54% y/y in Q2 on lower oil output, inflation

Ripples Nigeria reported last month that the country’s inflation rose to 19.64 percent in July, the highest in 16 years.

The last time Nigeria’s inflation was above 19.64 percent was in September 2005 when it rose to 24.32 percent.

Most of the time, the inflation figures appear negligible, but the impacts are seen in the monthly breakdown from the NIBSS report for 2022 on e-bills.

The report showed that in January, Nigeria spent N205.67 billion on electronic bills

This increased to N218.80 billion in February and N260.87 billion the following month.

The spending rose in April, May, and June to N237.89 billion, N256.17 billion and N257.56 billion respectively.

Although utility spending declined somewhat in July, it continued in August, with Nigerians spending N252.092 and N262.842, respectively.

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