{"id":112769,"date":"2025-10-30T19:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/112769\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T19:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:45:09","slug":"economist-says-middle-class-wiped-out-as-nigerians-struggle-with-rising-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/112769\/","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.newsbeep.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":112770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,17089,2158,113,1128,61,60,44796,44795,112],"class_list":["post-112769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-conversation","tag-current-affairs","tag-economy","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lets-talk","tag-nigeria-info-fm","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}