Nigerians continue to lament the high cost of living amid low income, calling on the government to take drastic measures to halt the pains.

The Guardian learnt that as the cost of living soars, the financial crisis is already taking a toll on employees’ mental health and well-being, thereby affecting productivity at the workplace.

Majority of those interviewed lamented that their monthly take-home pay is a far cry from the current high cost of living.

Also, since the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu, with no measures to cushion the effect on the citizens, the negative effects on households have skyrocketed.

Already, with the current inflation figures of about 22.7 per cent for June against a minimum wage of 30,000 as well as zero safety and welfare programmes, incomes have become insufficient to keep many households running.

The Federal Government is negotiating a new minimum wage that will increase workers’ salaries to align with the current reality. But the process is slow. Citizens have called for urgent implementation as financial challenges become overwhelming.

While the situation is already hurting Nigeria’s poverty and production index, in the last one year, the nation has witnessed perpetual rising inflation, commodity price instability, reduced industry capacity utilisation and dwindling purchasing power of Nigerians, all of which have further dragged many enterprises out of existence and Nigerians below the poverty lines.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said that while the current administration has lined out plans to improve the living standards of the masses, such plans must be backed by deliberate and quick responses.

He lamented the rising agitation of the masses, owing to the rising cost of living, compounded by the increasing cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and the threat of increment in electricity tariff, among others.

Despite commending the removal of fuel subsidies, renewed efforts at curbing oil theft and the ongoing attempt to reform the tax administration system, he said it was important that the government takes more drastic steps to stop the slide into hopelessness by Nigerians and on organised businesses.

Suggesting immediate short-term considerations, the NECA chief said it is imperative for the government to quickly take deliberate actions to mitigate the persistent rise in inflation to address the fast-accelerating cost of living in the country.

Such policy actions, Oyerinde said, may include price stability mechanisms, periodic feedback on the progress of the ongoing work at the refineries, reversal of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on AGO, and suspension of the planned upward review of electricity tariff.

More importantly, he said the government must conclude all palliative measures to provide some immediate respite to both individual and corporate citizens.

He said: “It is instructive to note that businesses and households are currently being over-stretched beyond their shock buffers. Already, there is a drag on business operation as production plans are persistently displaced by frequently changing factor costs, and households are constantly adjusting consumption to accommodate their inadequate real income.”

The Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Gilbert Houngbo, had said that without immediate action and increased resources to address the high cost of living could increase inequality and place greater strain on businesses.

According to him, with many countries having limited fiscal space to provide support to low-income households, the situation could fuel social unrest.

Director of the African Politeia Institute, an Abuja-based think-tank, Dr Lanre Babalola, who argued that there has not been any concerted effort by the government to address the crisis in living standards, said Nigeria is experiencing a prolonged economic malaise.

According to him, real wages are on a downward trajectory, productivity has remained stubbornly low, the economy is moribund, policies are wrongheaded and together these factors have sent prices skyrocketing.

He said productivity in every economic endeavour and cost of production rank unfavourably against comparable countries both globally and on the continent.

For a nation with a significant proportion of low-income earners, high unemployment and severe underemployment (especially among the youth), a dizzying proportion of the population in poverty, serious gender and income inequalities yawning urban-rural gaps and the spectre of food insecurity, he said the government would need to put effort immediately into increasing disposable incomes of the poor and vast majority of the population.

To tackle the high cost of living, he advised that the government needed to implement structural reforms in two areas.

According to him, the most important of economic and social infrastructure, transportation, energy, ICT and water, account for the former, while education, skills acquisition, and healthcare for the latter.

“Various administrations have attempted to increase aggregate supply, albeit unsuccessfully, without taking full cognisance of the role of aggregate demand. The unintended consequences were, in terms of outcomes, a reduction in real wages, increasing inflationary pressures, and diminishing overall social welfare. To put it bluntly, it is poor in Nigerian society that has been adversely impacted the most,” he said.

An economic expert, Pan-Atlantic University, Prof. Olalekan Aworinde, said Nigeria’s inflation was increasing at an aggressive rate, a reality which spelled tougher times for working-class Nigerians, many of whom lived on a fixed income.

He said Nigeria’s worsening inflation crisis would lead to a high cost of living, low standard of living, weakened production and more job losses.

He said: “People are not able to meet up with the standard of living in the economy, which will leave them in abject poverty and that is what we are experiencing in Nigeria. You will discover that people are not able to meet up with the necessities of life.

“Those employing individuals will not be able to produce up to the maximum capacity and the implication is that they will sack some workers, which means there will be a loss of jobs. With the economy now, there will be an increase in the government expenditure and tendency of accumulating debts.”