The middle class is linked to the rate of urbanization in Nigeria, a report the The Middle Class in Nigeria released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.
The study revealed that most of the middle class in Nigeria reside in the urban areas. It added that this is not strange because of the low level of urbanization in Nigeria. This redefined the occupational status and definition of the middle class; and generated equal proportionality between middle class wage earners and middle class self-employed. The lower middle class wage earners constitute about 18.1%, while the self-employed constitute 20.9%. Also, the middle class wage earners constitute 23.9% of the upper middle class, while 19.0% are the self-employed. It is also evident from the report that 20.3% of the lower middle class resides in the urban areas, while 20.2% are found in the rural areas. The only major significant difference is that the upper middle class accounts for 22.4% as against 14.5% of the rural upper middle class.
According to the report, various definitions of the middle class were used to determine its emergence in Nigeria and the socio-economic implications of the emerging structure. . The intention was to deepen and expand the frontiers of measuring the transition s of different poverty groups in Nigeria with a view to facilitating policies that promote the growth and integration of the determinant of the class into the poverty alleviation programmes and macroeconomic policy framework for the sustenance of Nigerias economic growth.
The Nigerian middle class was identified to constitute about 30% of the 2004 estimated population or 27.1% of the 2006 population. Of this population, 10.2% constitutes the lower middle class, while 28.8% constitutes the upper middle class. The lower class constitutes 50% while the upper class constitutes the remaining 20%. One important observation in the Nigerian case is that it transcends the dogged occupational definition of the middle class in the developed economies of USA, Britain, Germany, China and emerging economies like India (professionals and administrations, Clergy and clericals). Economic consumption groups that fall within the economic stratification of the middle class in Nigeria include those with little or no education. These findings were precipitated by the leap from the lower class with basic primary education to the lower-upper class as a result of their acquisition of political power which was identified in literature as having a direct bearing on income.
The Nigerian middle class was discovered to de-save by about N 18,384.06 or 18.38% annually and tend to follow a ratchet and demonstration behaviour if they must sustain the economic traits of being in that class. Other possible reasons for the stagnation of the middle class according to the report between 1996 and 2004, which remained at 30%, were identified as: high unemployment rate, growth paradox of poverty and poverty incidence, low wage rate and inflation. The report suggests the following policy options for sustaining and improving the middle class in Nigeria: expanding access to higher education; boosting home-ownership and savings; bridging the gap between wages and the cost of living; reducing unemployment; provision of credit facilities and pension scheme reforms and tax laws.
If 70% of the 140 million Nigerians are provided with the right environment to be economically empowered, the country would be one of the leading in the world. As additions to the recommendation of the report, policy options like giving subsidies, aids and grants to agro allied industries in Nigeria; allocation of certain proportion of Federal budget to the development f universities of agriculture and other agriculture-focusing research institutions may be considered.