Cost of living wants to kill the living

Over the years, we have watched the cost of living in Nigeria increase tremendously and right now, it's just ridiculous and we have no choice but to adapt. Before I go on, what's even the cost of living? According to Investopedia, "The cost of living is the amount of money needed to cover basic expenses such as housing, food, taxes, and healthcare in a certain place and The cost of living is the amount of money needed to cover basic expenses such as housing, food, taxes, and healthcare in a certain place and period". The cost of living varies from one country to another and even in a country, it varies from city to city.

For example in Nigeria, the cost of living is much higher in places like Lagos, portharcourt and Abuja as compared to places like Benin, Bauchi and Ibadan. It's in places like Lagos you will hear of a 2-bedroom flat being rented out for over 2 million naira but you can get the same apartment in Benin for just 800k naira. Even in a particular city, the cost of living is different between areas as it is higher in some areas than others. But the fact remains that the cost of living in Nigeria has increased by a lot, even though it varies amongst cities.

I mean, just compare the prices of goods and services between last year and this year. Indomie noodles moved from 150 to 300 naira, that's a 100% increase within a space of 6 months! Then the price of eggs did a 50% increase and went from 100 to 150 naira. This is the same for every other food item out there, as we even have some doing as much as a 200% increase! One thing you should know about the cost of living is that it's proportionate to inflation; higher inflation leads to an increase in the cost of living.

Now, let's compare the cost of living in Nigeria to other countries and for this, I picked New York City in the US just to keep it simple. New York City generally has a high cost of living in the US, so let's compare it with a State in Nigeria with one of the highest costs of living; Lagos. It might interest you to know that the cost of living in New York is actually a lot higher than that of Lagos, and I'm talking about 10 times higher. First of all, do you know how much their tuition fees cost in the US? I'm talking about colleges and universities, it's nothing compared to what we have here in Nigeria.

You see students taking loans which they later spend their whole life trying to pay off but here in Nigeria, people can pay for tuition by themselves without relying on loans. The average tuition fee in New York is $20k, while for Lagos, considering a lot of schools have increased their fees, let's just put the average at 150k naira ($115). You see that difference? Now, let's talk about the cost of renting an apartment in both cities. Some years back, I saw someone on YouTube talking about how much she pays for rent for a one-bedroom apartment and it's $400 per month.

That means she pays around $4800 in a year which in naira is around 6.2 million! For a one-bedroom apartment! This amount can easily get you a 3-bedroom flat in Lagos. Meanwhile, a one-bedroom apartment is around 600k ($460) in Lagos, while a 3-bedroom flat in New York is a whopping $8000. Should we then talk about food? An egg goes for 150 naira (in Lagos while in New York it's around $0.5 or 50 cents (650 naira). 1kg of chicken in Lagos sells for an average price of 3200 naira ($2.5) while in New York, it's $16 (20k naira).

I can go on and on comparing the prices of goods and services between these cities but I believe you have gotten the message now. A while ago, someone asked on X (formerly Twitter) that if you were given a choice to be earning $300 per month in the US or $300 in Nigeria, which would you go for? I was shocked to see people picking the US, that amount won't even last them 2 days over there. But in Nigeria, that will give you around 390k, much higher than what a lot of people earn monthly. Honestly, I like it here in Nigeria, even though it can be frustrating most of the time but the cost of living is much lower here.

But of course, even though the cost of living is high in the US, the minimum wage is way higher than what we have in Nigeria. The minimum wage is $16 per hour, which means if you work for 40 hours every week (that's an average of 7 hours every day including Saturday), you will earn $640, and that amount in a month will be around $2500 (3.2m naira). Meanwhile, the minimum wage in Nigeria is just 33k naira ($25). The only way I will consider relocating to New York is if I have a high-paying job which will enable me to keep up with the cost of living over there.

The average monthly salary over there in New York is around $6000, which in my opinion isn't enough to comfortably live there. Many people take multiple jobs so as not to drown in debt or move to another city with a lower cost of living. But generally speaking, the quality of life is way better in New York City, compared to Lagos. There are still a lot of things to compare between these cities and you can check them out from the website where I got most of my statistics; Numbeo. You can compare the cost of living between any two cities of your choice 😉

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