Nigeria’s rising food inflation at 40.66 percent as of May 2024, has increased the cost of average Nigerian spending to N1,041 to eat a healthy diet, the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics have shown.
The Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) by the NBS is the least expensive combination of locally available items that meet globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.
It is used as a measure of physical and economic access to healthy diets. This is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day excluding the cost of transportation and meal preparation.
The sustained rise in the cost of a healthy diet came at a time when Nigerians’ purchasing power was weakened as a result of Tinubu’s administration’s Naira’s devaluation resulting in weak purchasing power when transacting with the Nigerian currency.
Between May 2023 and May 2024, the average cost of eating a healthy meal has risen consistently as indicators like inflation rate, food inflation, and cost of fuel, which affected the prices of transportation to increase monthly.
On the Cost of Eating a Healthy Diet, findings showed that as of May 2023, when President Bola Tinubu assumed office, the cost of a healthy diet was N503. With this new data, the price increased by 107 per cent in one year.
That is more than double the amount paid to eat a healthy meal one year after Tinubu’s assumption.
According to NBS data, the Cost of a Healthy Diet was 1 per cent higher than the amount recorded in the previous month (April 2024, was N1,035).
At the State level Ebonyi, Abia, and Anambra States recorded the highest cost with N1,225, N1,215, and N1,205 respectively. Kano accounted for the lowest costs with N898, followed by Jigawa with N899 while Yobe and Katsina accounted for N906.
The Food inflation rate in May 2024 was 40.66 percent on a year-on-year basis, which was 15.84 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023 (24.82%).
The rise in Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items: Semovita, Oatflake, Yam flour prepackage, Garri, Bean, (which are under Bread and Cereals Class), Irish Potatoes, Yam, Water Yam, (under Potatoes, Yam and other Tubers Class), Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, (under Oil and fat), Stockfish, Mudfish, Crayfish, (under Fish class), Beef Head, Chicken-live, Pork Head, Bush Meat, (under Meat class).
Like the month-on-month headline inflation, the month-on-month Food inflation rate in May 2024 was 2.28 percent, also showing a decrease of 0.22 percent compared to the rate recorded in April 2024 (2.50%). The fall in the Food inflation on a Month-on-Month basis was caused by a fall in the rate of increase in the average prices of Palm Oil, Groundnut Oil (under Oil and Fats Class), Yam, Irish Potato, Cassava Tuber (under Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Wine, Bournvita, Milo, Nescafe (under Coffee, Tea and Coco Class).
The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending May 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 34.06 percent, which was 10.41 percent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in May 2023 (23.65%).