In a recent exclusive interview with Sunday Media Talk Africa, Gabriel Idahosa, the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has made a bold projection regarding the deceleration of Nigeria’s inflation rate in 2024. Idahosa attributed the current acceleration of inflation to the removal of fuel subsidies, causing prices to surge.
According to Idahosa, various governmental measures are being implemented to address the rising transport and logistics costs, which are expected to lead to a moderation of price levels in 2024. He emphasized that the effects of these measures would take some time to materialize, particularly in the transportation sector with the introduction of CNG buses and the expected reduction in energy costs upon the commencement of production at the Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries.
Highlighting the potential impact of these initiatives, Idahosa pointed out that regions such as Borno and Bayelsa are already experiencing lower transportation costs due to the introduction of CNG buses. He anticipates that within six to nine months, efforts to replace petrol as the primary source of transportation will yield significant results nationwide.
Idahosa’s optimistic outlook aligns with the World Bank’s assessment, which anticipates a moderation of Nigeria’s inflation rate in 2024. The bank’s report, titled ‘Macro Poverty Outlook: Country-by-country Analysis and Projections for the Developing World,’ forecasts a gradual decline in the share of Nigerians living below the international poverty line as inflation cools down and economic growth picks up.
An analysis of the Commodity Price Index reports published by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that Nigeria’s inflation has surged 25 times in the last 26 months. Despite this concerning trend, there was a slight deviation in December 2022 when inflation slowed to 21.34 per cent from the preceding month’s 21.47 per cent.
The collective predictions from LCCI and the World Bank offer a glimpse of hope for Nigeria’s economic landscape, fostering expectations of a more sustainable and favorable inflation trajectory in the coming year.
