Living standards worsen

Living standards in Nigeria have been falling and given categories of women are among the hardest hit by their deterioration, Nkoyo Toyo of the non-governmental Gender and Development Action told IRIN. These include, for example, women who must make dangerous bus rides to provide for hearth and home, said Toyo, who explained that she said she had seen women fall off the backs of overloaded vehicles “and nobody cares”. Living standards have fallen partly because there is a shortage of petroleum products, doing business is costly and jobs are scarce, PANA reported the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as saying in its 1998 statement of account released last weekend. The CBN said Gross Domestic Product per capita had declined to US $313 from US $342.2 in 1997. There was one doctor for 4,977 people, whereas the 1996 ratio was 1:4,706. [See Item: irin-english-1049, titled “Living standards worsen”] Inflation up Annual inflation in Nigeria rose to 11.6 percent in the year ending March 1999, up from 10.9 percent in the 12 months to February, the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) said on Tuesday. FOS attributed this to an increase in the cost of major staples, footware, and vehicle maintenance, AFP reported. Inflation was lower in urban than in rural areas. Inflation has risen from single to double digits at the end of 1998, FOS said, reaching an annual 10.4 percent in January.