Nigerians Predict Rising Costs, Brace For Higher Expenses In Transportation, Housing, And Medical Care – CBN

Nigerian households have voiced concerns over the increasing cost of living, with many anticipating further hikes in essential expenses, including transportation, housing, vehicle purchases, rent, and medical care, in the next six months.

This outlook is captured in the latest ‘Households Expectation Survey’ released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The survey reveals that consumers are increasingly planning to allocate their incomes strictly to essential needs, with a focus on basic items like food, household supplies, education, transportation, electricity, and medical bills.

The CBN attributes this cautious spending approach to the growing economic pressures affecting Nigerian households.

CBN said, “More consumers believe that the cost of transportation, house purchase, purchase of car/vehicle, rents and medical expenses will experience increase over the next six months in the following order.

“Households anticipate spending their income on basic expenditure items like Food & Other household items, Education, Transportation, Electricity and Medical Expenses across all time periods reviewed.

“However, they do not intend to spend a substantial portion of their income on items like purchase of House, Car/vehicle for the period under review.”

The survey also indicated that households do not intend to spend their earnings on the purchase of motor vehicles and buildings & landed properties within the months under review.

CBN added, “The Buying Condition Index1 for big-ticket items like Consumer Durables, Motor Vehicles and Buildings & Landed Properties, indicated that most respondents consider the current month unfavourable for purchasing these items. Consumers also do not think that the next three and six months are ideal periods to buy these items.”