{"id":153884,"date":"2025-10-30T19:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/153884\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T19:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:21:12","slug":"economist-says-middle-class-wiped-out-as-nigerians-struggle-with-rising-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/153884\/","title":{"rendered":"Economist Says Middle Class \u2018Wiped Out\u2019 as Nigerians Struggle with Rising Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aiir-c-news-figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/639c36a217a1f.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"aiir-c-news-article__abstract\">\n            Nigeria is battling with a cost-of-living crisis: global economic bodies are praising the country for economic reforms, but locals say this has increased the prices of goods and services, meaning their wages can barely cover basic necessities.\n        <\/p>\n<p>Examining this, the economist Muktar Mohammed says Nigeria\u2019s middle class has virtually disappeared, leaving the country divided between the very rich and the very poor.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Hard Facts with Mary-Ann Okon on Nigeria Info 99.3 Lagos, Mohammed said recent government measures, including the minimum wage increase from \u20a630,000 to \u20a670,000, have failed to improve incomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt \u20a6360 to the dollar, workers earned about $83. Today, at \u20a61,500, they earn just $46,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that while monetary policies have stabilized the naira and attracted investors, ordinary citizens have not seen the benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real change must come from fiscal policies that improve healthcare, education, housing, and infrastructure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed also criticized local and state governments for prioritizing \u201cwhite elephant projects\u201d over community development.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He called for the revival of primary healthcare centres, agricultural cooperatives, and public schools to restore the missing middle class, which he described as \u201cthe engine room of any economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigeria is battling with a cost-of-living crisis: global economic bodies are praising the country for economic reforms, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,11726,1734,179,18,22,19,17,67225,67224,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-153884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-current-affairs","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-lets-talk","17":"tag-nigeria-info-fm","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115464744913246892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}