The President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gabriel Idahosa, has projected that the country’s inflation rate will decelerate in 2024.
Idahosa, who was speaking during an exclusive interview with Sunday PUNCH on Friday, blamed fuel subsidy removal as the major reason for the inflation accelerating at a faster pace this year.
According to the LCCI president, with the measures being implemented by governments at all levels to tackle increasing transport and logistics costs, price levels would begin to moderate in 2024.
Idahosa said, “Certain things were predictable when the President declared that fuel subsidy was gone. We knew that there would be a spike in the price of fuel and everything other things connected to fuel. But all the measures to reduce the cost of transportation have started.
“They will also take time to come into effect. It will take some time to get our CNG buses. CNG buses are already running from Abeokuta to Mowe and some parts of Edo State and transport fares are coming down in those locations.”
According to Idahosa, when Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries begin production next year, energy costs will be reduced, which would have an impact on price levels.
He added, “So, we are going to get an aggregation of that across the country. Places like Borno and Bayelsa are now having CNG buses and transportation is coming down in these places. So, between six and nine months, all the efforts to replace petrol as the primary source of transportation will begin to show results.”
Idahosa’s position tallies with that of the World Bank, which said recently that it expected inflation rate in Nigeria to begin to moderate by 2024.
In a report titled ‘Macro Poverty Outlook: Country-by-country Analysis and Projections for the Developing World,’ the Washington-based bank said, “The share of Nigerians living below the international poverty line is expected to peak in 2024 at 38.8 per cent before beginning a gradual decline, as inflation cools down and economic growth picks up.”
According to an analysis of the Commodity Price Index reports published by the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s inflation has risen 25 times in the last 26 months.
The analysis showed that between October 2021 and November 2023, Nigeria’s inflation rose 25 times, with a singular exception to December 2022 when it slowed to 21.34 per cent from the 21.47 recorded in November 2022.