Between 2016 and 2026, Nigeria's economic landscape was reshaped by currency depreciation, accelerating inflation, the removal of fuel subsidies and elevated interest rates, according to a Comercio Partners report titled "The Decade That Changed Money". The report traces how oil shocks, the COVID-19 pandemic, global conflicts and domestic policy decisions altered living standards, investment behaviour and public finances, even as nominal wages, government revenue and financial market valuations rose.
The naira shed nearly 90% of its value against the dollar from 2015 to 2024, while headline inflation reached 34.8% in December 2024. Figures cited from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative show that more than N21 trillion was spent on fuel subsidies between 2005 and 2023.
The report divides the period into three phases. From 2016 to 2019, weak oil prices and crude production disruptions triggered a recession, foreign exchange restrictions and rising inflation, although the introduction of the Investors' and Exporters' window in 2017 supported a tentative recovery. The pandemic then caused a second recession in 2020, prompting a ₦2.3 trillion Economic Sustainability Plan and monetary easing. Between 2022 and 2026, global price pressures, domestic supply constraints and long-delayed reforms converged: petrol subsidies were removed in May 2023 and foreign exchange windows were unified, producing sharp price and currency adjustments.
The Central Bank of Nigeria raised the Monetary Policy Rate from 11.5% in 2022 to 27.5% in 2024. Conditions improved in 2025, when inflation fell to 15.15% by December following a Consumer Price Index rebasing, external reserves reached about $45 billion, and by May 2026 the naira traded around ₦1,370 per dollar while the NGX All Share Index posted a 55.7% year-to-date gain. Inflation nevertheless began rising again in early 2026.
Household incomes lagged behind living costs. The national minimum wage increased from N18,000 in 2015 to N70,000 in 2024, but cumulative inflation of 152.7% between 2020 and 2025 outpaced that growth. Food inflation hit 40.87% year-on-year in June 2024, petrol climbed from roughly N87 per litre in 2015 to N1,239 by April 2025, and rents in parts of Lagos rose by up to 200% over two years. The report estimates that housing could absorb about 70% of household income, well above the 30% affordability benchmark.
