By Nneka Chile
LAGOS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Melanie Igbe's restaurant hosted
50 people a day when it opened in Nigeria's megacity Lagos a
year ago. Fear of coronavirus has driven most diners away, but
Igbe believes inflation rather than the pandemic may kill her
business.
The price of basic ingredients has risen sharply since Cafe
de Elyon opened in January 2020, just weeks before Nigeria's
first known coronavirus case was diagnosed in Lagos. Food
inflation stood at 19.56% last month, after rising for 16
straight months. "This has really, really crippled us," said Igbe, surrounded
by empty tables and chairs in the restaurant. She cut her staff
from seven to five in recent months and fears permanent closure
in the summer if costs continue to rise.
White onions, an ingredient used in many of Igbe's dishes,
cost around 1,000 naira ($2.62) each compared with 300 naira
when her eatery opened. She said she resisted increasing the
price of dishes to retain customers who now mainly use
restaurant's takeaway service.
Nigeria is in its second recession in four years, triggered
by an oil price crash that hammered state revenues and weakened
the naira. That has made imports more expensive, spurring on
inflation.
Restaurants and wholesale vendors have felt the impact.
"Prices really spiked," said Tina Shaire, head chef at
Zolene restaurant in Lagos, who blamed Nigeria's border closures
for cutting off access to cheap imports.
The closures began in August 2019 to combat smuggling and
continued until December 2020 to prevent the novel coronavirus
spreading. The borders reopened last month, but prices remain
high. Market stallholder Emeka Igwe, standing in a noisy street
surrounded by bowls of rice and grains, said he sold more than
100 bags of rice each month two years ago, but that had fallen
to around 25 now.
"No-one is happy," he said. "Customers are complaining and
feel we're the ones inflating the price of goods."
($1 = 381.0000 naira)