Across Nigeria, the rising cost of food is forcing households to rethink how they eat, spend and survive, with families cutting back on protein, reducing meals, borrowing money and turning to communal savings schemes to meet everyday needs.
The pressure is being felt far beyond the marketplace. Parents are struggling to keep children in school, traders are watching their working capital lose value, and wage earners say their salaries are exhausted within days of payment.
The latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that while headline inflation eased marginally to 15.43 percent in July 2026, from 15.91 percent in June, food inflation moved in the opposite direction, rising sharply from 17.52 percent to 20.31 percent during the same period.
The increase has been reflected in the prices of staple foods and household essentials, including rice, garri, tomatoes, peppers and eggs.
For many households, the result is a painful arithmetic: deciding which necessity can be postponed, reduced or removed altogether.
Families Rework Their Meals
The traditional three-meal routine is becoming increasingly difficult for low- and middle-income households as food costs consume a larger share of monthly earnings.
Some parents have resorted to eating once or twice daily, while others preserve cooked food for the evening and encourage their children to rely on inexpensive alternatives such as garri during the day.
Mr Segun Michael, a resident of Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State, said his daily routine now involves eating before leaving home in the morning and depending on whatever is available when he returns.
He said preparing ordinary meals has become expensive, particularly for a household with children.
“You must cook and prepare them for school every day. Stew is a constant thing because it goes with rice and yam; you can mix it up with spaghetti, beans and other things.”
The cost of protein has become another major challenge.
“Ordinarily, a single small fish now costs about N2,500,” he said, calculating the cost for his family of five.
“For a family my size, you need at least two fish every two days. That’s N5,000 just on protein alone, before you even mention pepper, oil or gas,” he added.
Michael said his salary now disappears almost immediately after it is paid, as he tries to purchase essential food items before prices rise again.
“My salary ends the exact day I collect it,” he admitted, stating further: “The best you can do is quickly buy rice, garri, spaghetti and beans in bulk to lessen the amount you will spend in a month. That has been my strategy because I don’t have anybody to call if my family has nothing.
“I won’t lie to you. We had to cut some of our spending; that part of the protein has also been cut. When the children finish eating, we even hesitate to ask, ‘Are you full?’ We just tell them to drink water to support it.”
Salaries Fail to Keep Pace With Household Expenses
For salary earners, the challenge extends beyond food. Education, transportation, energy and other recurring expenses are competing for the same limited income.
Another father, Ismaila Mohammed, said his earnings are depleted within two days because of the number of financial obligations confronting his family.
He said the amount allocated monthly for feeding had to be increased from N50,000 to N70,000, but even the additional N20,000 has not been enough to cope with current market prices.
The cost of educating his three children has also risen significantly.
“School fees are another issue. I have three kids in private schools, and in the last session I paid N400,000. But now, they are having a new session because they are on vacation now.
“So, in this new session, I am paying N550,000, which is an increase of N150,000,” he stated.
“For us salary earners, when salary comes, within two days, everything is gone.
“Things are getting more expensive, yet our salaries are not increasing,” Mohammed lamented.
Ife Olawale, an academic, also described the widening gap between earnings and the cost of basic necessities.
In an interview with DAILY POST, Olawale said households could no longer maintain the standard of living they previously enjoyed, even when individuals avoided unnecessary spending.
“When you look at the salary, it is not increasing, but the prices of commodities keep increasing,” she noted.
Olawale added that earning money from multiple sources does not necessarily guarantee financial stability in the current economic environment.
“We Spend More During Holidays and Survive Through Ajo” – Father of Four
For Mr Abolore Akanmu, a father of four in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, surviving the current economic climate requires a combination of borrowing, cutting expenses and relying on traditional communal savings.
The financial strain has also affected his children’s education. He said he moved them from a private school to a government school after the cost of maintaining them in the former became unsustainable.
“Most parents have withdrawn their children from hostels.
“The school keeps increasing the hostel money every time to feed the few students left. I had to withdraw mine so things could balance a little, so I took them to a government school,” he disclosed.
Akanmu said the financial burden becomes even heavier during school holidays because children remain at home and household food consumption increases.
“During the holidays, you spend even more,” he stressed, pointing out that buying foodstuffs in bulk has become increasingly difficult.
Rather than stocking provisions for an extended period, he now relies heavily on daily purchases and inexpensive staples such as garri.
“A few days back, I went to buy garri. They must eat three times a day; it’s not like when they are going to school.
“Most of the holidays we spend more. I don’t depend on salary alone; I now depend on salary and loan. The more you borrow, the more you pay back.
“I’m paying the loan with another loan,” he disclosed.
Akanmu also revealed that he now participates in at least two Ajo contribution groups, a traditional communal savings arrangement he said he had not previously needed to depend on.
Despite the financial pressure, he said he remains hopeful about the country.
“I have faith in Nigeria. I have faith, and I have hope.”
Traders Also Struggle as Wholesale Prices Rise
The impact of inflation is not limited to consumers. Market traders are also dealing with higher wholesale prices, reduced purchasing power and customers who often interpret increased retail prices as an attempt to exploit them.
Abike Alade, a fruit vendor in the Oke Ilewo area of Abeokuta, said the value of her trading capital has been significantly eroded.
She recalled that N50,000 could previously purchase enough goods to stock an entire stall, whereas the same amount now buys substantially less.
According to Alade, a dozen watermelons that previously cost about N7,000 now sell for between N14,000 and N25,000.
The price of apples has also surged. A carton previously purchased for N22,000 now costs as much as N60,000, forcing sellers to charge three apples for N1,000.
“Before, we sold apples for N200 per one; even before, it was sold for N100. But now there’s no apple for N200 again.
“We were buying a carton, the small ones, for N22,000, but now it’s within the range of N50,000–N60,000. You can see the difference, and we have just 198 pieces in a carton.
“The difference is very clear. When we sell the apples to customers for three for N1,000, they think we want to cheat them,” she told DAILY POST.
The cost of running her household has risen alongside her business expenses.
As a single mother, Alade said feeding her family now requires careful prioritisation.
“Before, I could use N2,000 to cook a decent pot of food,” Alade lamented.
“Now, if I have N5,000, it is just to manage ourselves, especially as 1kg of cooking gas alone is around N1,500. We are all just managing to survive,” Alade added.
N5, N10, N20 and N50 Lose Purchasing Power
The declining value of small naira denominations has become another visible sign of the changing cost of living.
In local markets, notes such as N5, N10, N20 and N50 are increasingly difficult to use for individual purchases because very few goods remain within those price ranges.
DAILY POST observed that some traders now round prices to the nearest N100 or N200, while smaller denominations are sometimes rejected when offered for individual transactions.
A resident of Abeokuta South, identified as Oluwaseun Raymond, attributed the situation to the disappearance of low-priced goods from the market.
“What do you want to buy at the market that is sold for N20? There is nothing, not to talk of N10. The only way you can spend those denominations is if you want to buy something of maybe N100 and you give them five pieces of N20.
“Funny enough, a lot of them are even rejecting it because there is no way you can spend that money independently.
“The minimum now is N50 for candy and maybe one piece of Maggi. If things continue like this, it will be impossible for you to buy something of such in the market,” he stated.
Raymond said the decline in purchasing power has also affected household food budgets, recalling that feeding a small family previously required significantly less money.
He said the standard of living had deteriorated and argued that although the previous administration was not “palatable”, the present government is worse.
Tinubu Defends Fuel Subsidy Removal
While households and businesses continue to adjust to higher living costs, the Federal Government maintains that some of its economic reforms will deliver long-term benefits.
President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, defended the removal of the petrol subsidy, arguing that the policy is benefiting ordinary Nigerians through the redeployment of government resources.
Tinubu spoke while receiving the newly elected leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) at the State House in Abuja.
He said money saved from the subsidy removal was being used to fund salaries and major infrastructure projects, including road construction.
“The fuel subsidy is gone for the benefit of our great country. I will soon publish the utilisation of what it is. I listen to people, they say common man and all of that. Who are the people receiving the salaries in the local government administration?
“Are they not common men and women receiving salary regularly at the state level? Are they not common men and women? The ordinary people receive salaries at the federal government regularly, and it affects all the market women around us, including your wives.
“But I’m glad you have seen the effect of being able to find funding for long-term projects; Lagos-Ibadan Road, Abuja-Kaduna Highway, Abuja-Kano, and Sokoto-Badagry highways and many other road networks. It’s all for the good of us, the good of our economy and the safety of our people.”
The President also assured Nigerians that details on how savings from the subsidy removal are being utilised would be made public.
Economic Hardship Shapes 2027 Political Sentiments
As Nigerians contend with the rising cost of food and other necessities, economic conditions are increasingly becoming part of conversations about the 2027 general elections.
For some residents, political choices will be influenced less by campaign promises and more by whether government policies have improved their daily lives.
Raymond said he intends to participate in the electoral process and make his decision based on his assessment of government policies.
“I have made up my mind to participate in the process. I must vote for my conscience. I am ready, and I already know who I will support based on how these policies affect us.”
Alade, however, expressed a more pessimistic view of what another term could mean for households already struggling with rising expenses.
“If he comes back for the 2nd time, that one is going to be worse than what we are facing presently,” she stated
For millions of households, the economic debate has therefore moved beyond statistics. It is now playing out in the quantity of food placed on dinner tables, the number of times families eat each day, the schools parents can afford, the debts they accumulate and the purchasing power of the naira in their hands.
While official figures may show changes in inflation from one month to another, the experiences of households and traders demonstrate how the cost-of-living crisis continues to shape everyday decisions across Nigeria.
