Sarcouncil Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Management

Abstract: Following the economic reasoning that the purchasing of a country’s currency is related to the people’s poverty level, this study is conducted to ascertain how consumer price indices in Nigeria impacted on the country’s poverty level within the data sample of Q12003-Q42023. Indicators of consumer price indices adopted are food, education, housing and health price indices while poverty level is measured by poverty rate. The primary source of the employed quarterly data are the statistical documents of Nigeria’s apex bank (CBN) and Word Development Indicators (WDI). Applying the estimation processes of the Lagged Autoregressive Distributive (ARDL) mechanism, the outcomes established that; the price indices of food, education and housing exhibited short and long runs substantial incremental effects on Nigeria’s poverty rate, but health price index contributed insignificantly positive influence on the country’s rate of poverty in the near and long terms. Thus, this necessitates emphasizing that rising general price indices exacerbated Nigeria’s poverty rate during the sampled data period. Based the study outcomes and conclusion, it is necessarily highlighted that government should ensure effective food production and security policies for sustainable food supply; underscore affordable and accessible quality education by strengthening actions and innovative financing for cost moderated inclusive education; implement affordable housing policies and subsidized primary healthcare services, as these steps would moderate the associated price indices and weaken poverty level in the country.