Rampant inflation and climate crisis: can cash cope?

Nigeria is currently experiencing its worst financial crisis in almost 30 years. Economic reforms such as the floating of the naira and the fuel subsidy’s removal have contributed to rising inflation, which reached almost 30% in February 2024. The volatile financial climate is having a real and significant impact on crisis-affected communities in northeast Nigeria. Humanitarian funding for Nigeria is predicted to decline in 2024, meaning the response’s strategy for 2024–2025 focuses on more targeted and prioritised assistance. This includes improving the cost efficiency of aid delivery, focusing on multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA), and increasing interventions before crises escalate. As the response looks to cash, specifically MPCA, to make efficiency gains, it is more important than ever to ask people who receive cash and vouchers about their experiences, and how cash could work better for them.

Ground Truth Solutions (GTS), in partnership with FACT Foundation, has been collecting feedback from people who receive cash and vouchers in Nigeria since 2019. This Report presents the findings of:

• The fifth round of quantitative surveys, carried out in October 2023, in which we spoke with 1,952 people across Borno and Yobe states, including internally displaced people, host community members, and returnees, who had received cash and voucher assistance in the prior six months. 
• A qualitative study in Borno and Yobe states with people who have received cash and voucher assistance, focusing on modality preferences and financial inclusion, conducted in February 2024. 
• A qualitative study in Adamawa State with people living in flood-affected communities, which were targeted by anticipatory cash transfer programmes.