The year 2022 came with mixed expectations as some, including analysts and stakeholders in the economy, projected hardship, while others see the possibility of economic expansion.

Many perceived that a lot needed to be done to scale through inflation, coupled with the diminishing purchasing power of individuals, and sorted out means to scale through. Others joined halfway, after luckily surviving from the bites of a bad economy.

Economy&Lifestyle  discovered many areas where the situation of the economy bites harder and the various changes victims made to scale through, one of which is women’s low patronage  of aso-ebi.

The outbreak of COVID-19 worsened the patronage of aso-ebi, which continued in 2022. The party material joined other household items, which suffered low patronage, due to inflation. Women complained of the prices of the materials and the high cost of making a dress from them.

In 2022, ladies went braless to save cost. Some improvised, using boobs, tapes and tubes. This was due to the increase in the prices of bras, which went up from N800 to N5,000.

Another lifestyle women embraced was the use of a corset, instead of patronising the gym to keep fit.

Some women, who spoke to Economy&Lifestyle , confessed that an average Nigerian woman puts in double, if not triple, the efforts to keep her family going, due to the bad economy and may have little or no time to visit the gym.

The cost of looking pretty was also cut in 2022. Many women abandoned the use of make-up and embraced stepping out in their natural looks. Some had to buy affordable mixtures to smoothen their face as the prices of buying make-up powders and accessories and that of visiting make-up artists increased sharply.

The negative effect of the nation’s economy was also reflected in the institution of couples as divorce in many marriages had been the end product.

While so many other factors including lack of trust, lack of respect, infidelity among others were not ruled out for possible causes of plethora divorces, it was rather appalling but not shocking that a common issue  such as ‘feeding money’ was the major culprit to this deadly menace.

An average Nigerian also had to cut costs by using one phone due to the rising cost of phones. Another introduction that supported Nigerians usage of one phone is the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) service for GSM subscribers in 2013 by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.

Fuel scarcity wahala was another economic development that made parents send wards to school only twice a week or at most three times a week.  On such days, the kids end up late at school because a good number of buses were packed away on long   queues at filling stations and the few that managed to ply the routes were not enough to convey the number of passengers on the way.

This created fear that some of these children living far from school might not do well in their first term examination. The lifestyle of a Nigerian parent forcing wards to school was swept under the carpet.

Most families also had to adopt the use of charcoal to cook food such as beans which take hours to be ready. This was due to the continuous rise in the price of  cooking gas. It created the fear of a spike in climate change which Nigeria and  countries around the world  are struggling to curtail.

Expenses on Christmas hampers were also cut down as the scenario where  the sight of 10 to 20 fat hampers greeted  you from the entrance of the reception offices  disappeared.

Individuals were greeted  by the sight of lean hampers, where items in them were not up to six, making them  less attractive. The worst of it was the  absence of hampers.