Nigeria Listed Among Countries to See Worsening Hunger

The latest Global Hunger Index (GHI)has disclosed that  Nigeria is among the nine countries expected to see its hunger levels worsening throughout the year.

Apart from Africa’s biggest economy, the Index, a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels highlighted Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen, Burkina Faso and Mali as the other countries.

It said while conflict and climate change are key drivers of these crises, economic downturns are an even more pervasive factor.

According to the United Nations, food insecurity is the lack of consistent access to food, which diminishes dietary quality, disrupts normal eating patterns, and can have negative consequences for nutrition, health and well-being.

And Nigeria’s food inflation has been accelerating since August 2019 and now at a faster pace since the country floated the naira and removed petrol subsidy amid high malnutrition and hunger levels in Africa’s most populous country.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Food inflation, which constitutes 50 percent of the inflation rate, rose to 30.64 percent in September, the highest in 18 years, from 29.34 percent in August.

The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese, and eggs.

The World Bank, in its recent food security update, listed Nigeria among the countries to face catastrophic levels of food insecurity in 2023.

According to the update released on June 29, acute food insecurity is expected to worsen in Nigeria, where 24.8 million people are projected to be acutely food insecure between June and August 2023, including 1.1 million people in emergency conditions.