The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) says that despite Nigeria’s inflation rate falling sharply in October, many families are still not enjoying real relief. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had reported that headline inflation dropped to 16.05 percent — one of the biggest declines in recent months.
Reacting to the numbers, CPPE CEO, Muda Yusuf, said the drop is a good sign for the economy, but the everyday reality for Nigerians has not changed much. According to him, the structural problems affecting food production, transportation, energy, and housing remain too deep for families to feel any real ease.
Yusuf explained that although inflation is moderating because of better macroeconomic indicators, exchange-rate stability, and base effects from last year, the major pressure points affecting household budgets remain stubbornly high. Food, transport, housing, utilities, education, and healthcare — sectors that make up 84% of household expenses — are still expensive.
He added that logistics costs, energy shortages, insecurity in farming regions, and climate-related setbacks continue to erode whatever gains lower inflation should bring.
Yusuf called for stronger coordination between monetary, fiscal, and structural policies to sustain the downward inflation trend and translate it into real benefits for citizens. He said Nigeria is seeing better economic stability, especially with improvements in foreign exchange management, modest naira gains, and tighter monetary controls — all helping to slow down price increases.
But despite these signs of progress, the CPPE boss stressed that without tackling the root causes — high cost of logistics, insecurity, ageing farmers, expensive credit, and unreliable energy — Nigerians will keep asking the same question: “If inflation dey drop, why my daily expenses still dey rise?”