Hooray! It’s December 31st, 2022!
A mix of excitement and expectation fills the air as the world counts down to the last seconds of the year after sunset.
Celebrations and fireworks around the globe this midnight, as time unveils a new year, will veil the disappointment of many at their unfulfilled dreams in the lost year or the disillusionment of others about a new year in which they know things will not really be new.
For people of all religious faiths and pets of all racial fractions, New Year’s eve marks the culmination of a Happy December, in which they’d sought respite from work and purchased wholesale fancies, food, and fun to share with friends and family.
Indeed, December’s pricey happiness peaks this midnight, plateaus into the early hours of New Year’s Day, and progresses into an anticlimax before the sunset of the first day of a Humbling January, as the trend shows.
After the happiness of December peaks tonight, a month of modest spending follows. Besides personal financial trends, the central government’s financial policies and political programmes present the likelihood of an even more sober first quarter of 2023 for the country.
January holds out usual cuts in consumption expenditures and then the promised cash withdrawals limits on January 9th, together with the expiry of the old N1000, N500, and N200 currency by January 31st.
February holds out harsh electoral and economic realities – the crashed election hopes for half the Nigerian electorate whose candidates would certainly lose, together with the usual low consumption expenditures.
March promises the resolution of these nerving economic and electoral conflicts – a comeback of private income and consumption and a countdown to the blessings the second quarter holds for sworn political officeholders in May.
Happy December?
December 2022 is definitely a very happy month – for high-income and middle-income earners in Nigeria.
However, data on consumption expenditure, measured by the number of POS transactions in the last quarter of 2022, shows it was a hungry and hollow December for low-income earners in Nigeria.
For the first time in 5 years, the volume of POS transactions in Nigeria in November fell below that in January.
Where the value of POS transactions in November still exceeds that in January, it means the value per transaction is higher. This is an indication that the poor are making fewer personal expenditures while the rich are making the bulk of the transactions.