Falling Quality, Rising Prices: A Growing Consumer Crisis

What would you do if you bought a roll of “quality” toilet paper only to watch it flake apart as you unrolled it? Or if you picked up a carton of your favourite biscuits, only to discover they were smaller than they used to be, and contained fewer biscuits than before?

These are just some of the frustrations many Nigerians are grappling with today. To make matters worse, these lower-quality products now cost two or even three times as much as they did just a few years ago.
What is perhaps most baffling is that these same products were once cheaper and of far better quality. So, what changed?

“I went to Utako Market to buy seasoning cubes, and the price had gone up. When I asked the trader why, she told me that even the sizes of the cubes had been reduced despite the price increase,” Susan, a regular shopper at Utako Market, said.

“Using bleach now, when you pour it on a surface, it no longer leaves a stain the way it used to. It’s no longer as strong. Even when washing clothes, it doesn’t clean as effectively,” she lamented. She also noted that a tub of a Nigerian margarine brand now tastes bland, unlike in the past, when it had a richer flavour.
Like Susan, many Nigerians are left searching for answers to a simple question: Why are consumers no longer getting the quality they pay for, even as the prices of everyday products continue to soar?

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Payfair Corporate Services Limited, an economic expert, Bob Ugochukwu Ani, in an interview, disclosed the reason behind expensive yet substandard products, describing it as a Macroeconomic Squeeze.

“Producers and manufacturers are currently facing an unprecedented spike in input costs, driven by elevated energy prices, high logistics and transportation costs (with retail fuel averaging N1,300 to N1,400 per litre), and lingering foreign exchange pressures on imported raw materials.

“To survive without completely pricing themselves out of the market, many brands have resorted to re-engineering their products by substituting premium ingredients with cheaper, lower-grade alternatives, or reducing packaging quality to protect their margins,” he said. He also mentioned other reasons, such as consumer purchasing power, regulatory lag, and the informal market loophole.

The sad reality is that the problem with substandard products extends far beyond their inflated prices. Behind the shrinking sizes and declining quality lies a far more worrying issue: the potential health risks facing unsuspecting consumers.