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Employees at Eagle Wholesalers Limited, Nairobi, arrange school uniforms on shelves awaiting customers on January 27, 2020. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NMG
Kenyan households should prepare to spend almost two times their monthly incomes on school requirements such as uniforms, stationeries and bags, worsening the biting cost of living.
The 2022 Cost of School study by global payments company WorldRemit, shows that Kenyan families will pay more than 1.75 times their household monthly income on school supplies, amid the global inflation that has affected the cost of sending children to learning institutions.
The rise in school supplies is expected to hit hard many households, especially the low-income segment, which is grappling with a high cost of food and essential household items.
The study was conducted across 21 markets globally. Private and international schools in Kenya have already increased their fees this year to factor in inflation.
“Across all 10 countries observed in both 2021 and 2022 studies, the dramatic increase of specific school items illustrates how inflation is hitting home on schooling costs and impacting families across the world, depending on how many items they needed to buy for this upcoming year,” the report stated.
Inflation has been on the rise since 2020 amid constraints in supply chains and shortage of raw materials that led to high cost of goods.
Prices of household items including eggs, milk, cooking oil, fuel, and cooking gas have increased blamed on high production costs and shortages worsened in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The rise in school shopping is poised to hit families amid stagnated incomes since 2020.
Economic Survey 2022 show average monthly basic minimum wages for instance in urban areas – Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu- in 2021 remained the same as in 2020 at Sh21,310 since there have been no reviews since 2018. The WorldRemit study also shows the average household income decreased by four percent.
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