Nigeria’s Cost-of-Living Crisis Deepens Under Tinubu Reforms: As Millions are Pushed Deeper into Poverty
SNOW TV NEWS DESKThree years after President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, Nigeria faces a stark paradox. Bold macroeconomic reforms—chiefly the removal of the decades-old petrol subsidy and the unification and liberalization of the foreign exchange market—have restored a measure of fiscal stability, raised government revenues, and improved external reserves and growth figures. Yet these same policies triggered an inflationary shock that has driven tens of millions more Nigerians below the poverty line, eroded real incomes, and produced one of the most severe cost-of-living crises in a generation.
According to successive World Bank Nigeria Development Updates and related assessments, the national poverty rate rose from around 56 percent in 2023 to 61 percent in 2024 an...