A recent survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, revealed that two-thirds of households in Nigeria do not have enough money to afford healthy and nutritious food.
The survey, titled “Nigeria General Household Survey–Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024),” found that 71 percent of households were affected by rising prices of major food items, leading to significant food shortages, particularly in June, July, and August, which worsened the food insecurity crisis.
“Approximately two out of three households indicated being unable to eat healthy, nutritious or preferred foods because of lack of money in the last 30 days”, the survey report stated.
Additionally, 63.8 percent of households reported consuming only a limited variety of foods due to lack of money, 62.4 percent expressed concern about not having enough food, and 60.5 percent indicated they were eating less than they believed was necessary.
“Between Waves 4 and 5, the proportion of households that reported being worried about not having enough food to eat because of lack of money increased significantly, from 36.9 percent to 62.4 percent.”
The survey also noted that households in Nigeria experience an average of 6.7 power blackouts each week.
This is a result of the incessant collapse of the National Grid which has occurred up to 8 times this year.
Regarding energy access, the NBS survey highlighted that 82.2 percent of urban households have electricity, in contrast to only 40.4 percent in rural areas.
“Cooking typically involves traditional three-stone stoves (65.0 percent), primarily using wood as fuel (70.2 per cent), but with the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) rising significantly.
It has been reports that food and petrol price hikes increased Nigeria’s inflation to 33.88 percent in October.
Similarly, Nigeria’s food inflation reached a record high of 39.16 percent during the review period.
