Fifty-three percent of Nigerians do not save any money on a monthly basis, according to the PiggyVest Savings Report 2025, released in March 2026. The statistic, shared by NigeriaStories, reflects a three-year decline in savings habits and is rooted in structural economic pressures that leave millions of households with no margin between income and survival.
The report, based on surveys of over twenty thousand respondents, found that seventy-two percent of income is spent on food and groceries alone, and that nearly three out of five Nigerians earn below one hundred thousand naira monthly or have no income at all.
The data paints a picture of an economy where saving is not a choice most people are making. It is a luxury most people cannot afford.
The decline in savings habits over three years corresponds directly with the period during which inflation surged, the naira was devalued, fuel subsidies were removed, and the cost of living climbed faster than wages.
The result is that households that might have been able to set aside small amounts in 2022 or 2023 are now spending everything they earn just to maintain the same or lower standard of living.
Food, rent, transportation, and utilities consume the entirety of monthly income, and there is nothing left to save at the end of the month because there is nothing left at the end of the week or even the end of the day.
Seventy-two percent of income going to food and groceries is not a sign of extravagance or poor budgeting. It is a sign of crisis. In functional economies, food is expected to account for a much smaller share of household spending, typically between fifteen and thirty percent depending on income levels.
When that figure climbs above fifty percent, it indicates that households are in or near poverty and are prioritising survival over all other considerations. At seventy-two percent, it means that after buying food, there is almost nothing left for anything else, and certainly nothing left to save.
The finding that three out of five Nigerians earn below one hundred thousand naira monthly or have no income at all provides the context for why saving is impossible. One hundred thousand naira, which would have been considered a modest middle-income salary just a few years ago, is now barely enough to cover rent, transportation, and food in most urban areas. For someone earning below that threshold or earning nothing, saving is not a question of discipline or financial literacy. It is a question of mathematics. If your income is fifty thousand naira and your expenses are sixty thousand, you are not saving. You are borrowing, delaying payments, or going without.
Reactions to the report were a mix of recognition and frustration. Users shared personal experiences of cutting meals, skipping healthcare, delaying rent, and making impossible choices between competing necessities. The idea that anyone in their position could save was treated as absurd, a luxury that belongs to a different economic reality than the one they are living. Many pointed out that the conversation around savings and financial literacy often ignores the structural barriers that make saving impossible for most people and instead places the blame on individuals for not managing money they do not have.
A recurring theme in the replies was the gap between what financial institutions and experts recommend, save at least ten to twenty percent of your income, and what is actually possible. The advice assumes a baseline level of income stability and discretionary spending that does not exist for the majority of Nigerians. When seventy-two percent of income goes to food, there is no ten percent left to save. There is no five percent. There is no buffer at all.
The PiggyVest report is significant because it comes from a platform whose entire business model is built around helping Nigerians save.
If even PiggyVest’s own data shows that more than half of Nigerians are not saving, it is an acknowledgment that the problem is systemic rather than individual. It is not that people do not want to save or do not understand the importance of saving.
It is that the economy has made saving impossible for the majority, and no amount of nudging, automation, or financial education can change that reality without addressing the underlying income and cost-of-living crisis….See More
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