By Epiphanus Obia
Nigerian poet and editor Adedayo Agarau has launched an interactive online calculator that estimates how much purchasing power Nigerians have lost since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, transforming inflation and cost-of-living data into personalized digital “Renewed Hope Payslips.”
The tool, hosted on the 1000reasons.vote platform, asks users a few questions about their income before generating an “Invisible Deductions” statement that estimates how rising prices have affected what their salaries can buy over the past three years.
Agarau announced the project on X over several posts this week, describing it as a tool that shows users what “Tinubu’s brilliant economy has been taking from you monthly since 2023.”
In one example shared on the platform, he claimed someone earning a monthly salary of ₦350,000 since 2023 would have lost an estimated cumulative ₦3.6 million in purchasing power before taxes. In another, he said a worker earning ₦600,000 monthly has effectively lost about ₦293,600 in purchasing power every month since May 2023.
The calculator allows users to indicate whether they earn a monthly salary or daily and weekly income, enter their estimated earnings, specify whether their income has changed since May 2023 and optionally indicate how many people depend on that income.
According to the website, all calculations are performed locally on users’ devices and the information entered is neither stored nor transmitted elsewhere.
After processing the information, the tool presents users with a series of shareable slides summarising the estimated impact of inflation on their earnings. It also generates a downloadable “Statement of Invisible Deductions” styled like a payslip, breaking estimated losses into categories including food, transport and fuel, rent, electricity, cooking gas and other household expenses.
In a test conducted by IT Pulse using Nigeria’s ₦70,000 national minimum wage, assuming the income had remained unchanged since May 2023 and supported one person, the calculator estimated that purchasing power had declined by 49%.
The tool calculated an estimated monthly “invisible deduction” of ₦34,300 and a cumulative purchasing power loss of ₦787,100 since May 2023. It also estimated that a ₦70,000 salary today has the purchasing power of about ₦35,700 in May 2023.
The downloadable report attributed the estimates to price increases across different spending categories and cited data from the National Bureau of Statistics’ Consumer Price Index and Central Bank of Nigeria rates as reference sources. However, the website does not publish its methodology or explain how the estimates are calculated or weighted.
The launch comes amid continued public debate over the economic impact of President Tinubu’s reforms, including the removal of petrol subsidies and the unification of Nigeria’s foreign exchange market shortly after he assumed office in 2023. While the Federal Government has consistently argued that the reforms were necessary to stabilise the economy and improve public finances over the long term, many Nigerians have continued to grapple with higher living costs and reduced purchasing power.
The salary calculator is the latest addition to Agarau’s 1000reasons.vote project. In May, he launched Looters, a public archive documenting corruption allegations, investigations and convictions involving politicians, public officials, institutions and companies across multiple Nigerian administrations.
Unlike the earlier database, the new calculator focuses on translating macroeconomic indicators into personalised estimates, allowing users to visualise how inflation and rising prices may have affected the value of their incomes since 2023.