Nigeria’s economic crisis and soaring gasoline prices forced Bolaji Emmanuel to give up his driver and his Honda Pilot utility vehicle as he struggles with spiking living costs.
Emmanuel is not alone. Many in Africa’s most populous country are abandoning their cars as the costs strain disposable income.
The price of gas has risen more than fivefold since Nigerian President Bola Tinubu took office in May last year.
Photo: Reuters
“I parked it at my son’s house. I use public transport now,” said Emmanuel, a 72-year-old retired health worker. “It is not convenient, but it is what the economy demands.”
Since coming to power, Tinubu has ended a costly fuel subsidy and freed up the naira currency in reforms that government officials and analysts say will revive the economy and attract investors.
However, in the short term, Nigeria has entered one of its worst crises in decades, with inflation at a three-decade high.
A liter of gasoline sold for about 195 naira (US$0.12) just before Tinubu took office. The price rose to at least 998 naira per liter in Lagos and 1,030 naira in the capital, Abuja, at the beginning of this month. It can go for as much as 1,300 naira elsewhere.
Inflation reached an almost three-decade high of 34.19 percent in June. It has since slowed to 32.7 percent last month.
The slump in purchasing power is piling more hardship on locals, with more than 40 percent of the population living in poverty, according to the World Bank.
That figure is expected to rise this year and next year before it stabilizes in 2026.
The Nigerian middle class, which made up about 20 percent of the population in 2020, now readily sacrifices the comfort of private cars for survival.
Car dealers in Lagos and Abuja told reporters that they had seen more people trading their cars for more efficient vehicles to cut costs.
“People are actually selling their big cars these days,” said Maji Abubakar, a car dealer in Abuja. “The problem is that even if you put them on the market, there isn’t much demand for them.”
“It has been more than a year since I sold a car with an eight-cylinder engine, and the major reason is the price of petrol,” he added.
With fewer cars on the road, even the notorious Lagos traffic, known as “go-slow,” has thinned out.
Some are turning to bicycles, despite the lack of appropriate infrastructure in cities like Lagos, where car crashes are common.
“Sure, we notice [a rise in] cycling ... for months since the fuel hike,” said Femi Thomas, head of FT Cycle Care, a Lagos-based organization that promotes cycle use.
Food delivery platform Glovo said it had recorded a growing interest in bicycle deliveries among its riders.
About 20 percent of orders are delivered by bike, said Chidera Akwuba, the group’s public relations manager in Nigeria.
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