Nigerians Spend More Money on Recharge Cards than Food

According to a recent survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the World Bank, Nigerians are spending more money buying recharge cards for their phones than they actually spend on feeding.

The result of the General Household Panel Survey conducted by the NBS in collaboration with the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Study Group indicated that each household in Nigeria spends an average of ₦20,874 on recharge cards, ₦14,620 on food ₦33,373 on house rent, ₦13,860 on petrol, ₦7,748 and ₦6,660 on kerosene on a monthly basis.

Using the data as a basis to calculate for the entire country showed that on average monthly, Nigerians spend about ₦449.73 billion on recharge cards, ₦399.65 on food, ₦143.3 billion on kerosene, and ₦149.17 billion on house rent.

The data also showed that Nigerians hardly use mortgages facilities to pay for their homes, but rather purchase houses directly. According to the data, the amount spent to service mortgages was the least of the expenditure profile of the average Nigerian family with an average of ₦3.09 billon used monthly as against the monthly estimate of ₦149.17 billion spent on payment of house rents monthly.

According to the NBS, 5000 households were selected from the NBS' annual general household database (cross-sectional covering the six geo-political zones) and surveyed to generate the data released in the GHS Panel report for 2012/2013.
Though the data above indicates average expenditure patterns by per household in Nigeria, it was enlarged to cover the entire population in the country.
The NBS estimates that the average Nigerian family had 5.7 people per household. Using a population of 170million as at year end 2013, an estimated 29.8million households were gotten for the entire country.