Cost of healthy diet in Nigeria drops in August – NBS

The national average Healthy Diet (CoHD) cost was N1,255 in August 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

In its “Cost of a Healthy Diet August 2024” report published on Thursday, the statistics office said this shows a decline of 0.8 per cent when compared to the amount recorded in the previous month (July 2024, was N1,265).

The bureau said in August 2024, the average CoHD was highest in the South-west at N1,554 per adult per day, compared to N1.014 per adult per day in the North-west.

The report said CoHD is the least expensive combination of locally available items that meet globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.

It explained that it measures physical and economic access to healthy diets. It said this is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day, excluding transportation and meal preparation costs.

“The National average Cost of a Healthy Diet was N1,255 per adult per day in August 2024. At the State level Ogun, Lagos and Rivers States recorded the highest cost with N1,641, N1,615, and N1,572 respectively. Katsina, Kaduna and Sokoto accounted for the lowest costs with N880, N951 and N980.

“At the Zonal level, the average CoHD was highest in the South-west Zone at N1,554 per day, followed by the South-South Zone with N1,381 per day. The lowest average Cost of a Healthy diet was recorded in the North-west Zone with N1,041 per day,” the NBS said.

Cost share by food group

According to the bureau, animal source foods were the most expensive food group recommendation to meet in August, accounting for 37 per cent of the total CoHD to provide 13 per cent of the total calories.

It said fruits and vegetables were the most expensive food groups in terms of price per calorie; they accounted for 11 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, of total CoHD while providing only 7 per cent and 5 per cent of total calories in the Healthy Diet Basket.

It added that legumes, nuts and seeds were the least-expensive food group on average, at 7 per cent of the total cost.

In recent years, food prices have been on the rise across Nigeria. The situation deteriorated due to the impact of government policies such as the removal of subsidies on petrol, among others.

The upward trend in the prices of these staples and other products has weakened the purchasing power of many citizens, making it difficult for many households in the country to afford daily meals.

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate eased again in August after a persistent rise in nearly two years. Inflation rate eased further to 32.15 per cent in August relative to the July headline inflation rate of 33.40 per cent, the NBS said in its latest inflation report.

According to the NBS, food inflation was 37.52 per cent in August 2024 as against 39.53 per cent recorded in July.

On Thursday, the statistics office said the CoHD had risen faster than general inflation and food inflation.

However, it noted the CoHD and the Food Consumer Price Index (CPI) are not directly comparable; the CoHD includes fewer items and is measured in Naira per day, while the food CPI is a weighted index.

“The Cost of Healthy Diet (CoHD) has been steadily rising over the past six (6) months,

since March 2024. In August 2024, the CoHD was 28 per cent higher than it was in March 2024 (N982).

“The main drivers of this increase in CoHD are legumes, nuts and seeds, starchy staples and vegetables. On a month-month basis, it declined by 0.8 per cent compared to the cost in July 2024 (N1,265). Vegetables saw a decline in price by 14.5 per cent on a monthly basis,” it said.

In the past year, the NBS said the CoHD and the cost of all other goods and services increased at roughly the same rate, until July 2023, when CoHD increased at a faster rate than all goods and services (general CPI) and more than all foods for which retail prices are collected.

The bureau said in August 2024, Ogun (Urban) topped the chart with the highest Cost of a Healthy (CoHD) at N1,691 per adult per day.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

Conversely, it said Katsina (Urban) offered the most affordable option at N869 for CoHD.

Interestingly, the NBS said some of the least-cost food items remained consistent across both locations.These included millet whole grain, palm oil, and bitter leaf.

“However, price variations between these locations resulted in different costs per item. Also, some unique least-cost options emerged. For instance, Ogun (Urban) favoured water leaf as the most affordable vegetable, whereas Katsina (Urban) opted for bitter leaf,” it added.

Policy implications

The NBS noted that the Cost of a Healthy Diet provides important information about food access, a key aspect of food security useful for government, civil society and development partners, the private sector, and researchers.

For instance, it said that where the cost of a healthy diet is high, it is possible to identify which least costly items and food groups are driving the high price.

Stakeholders can identify supply challenges in specific foods or groups, such as improved production, distribution, or market access.

It explained that the Cost of a Healthy Diet can also inform the minimum income needed by households to access a healthy diet, and social protection and transfer amounts for vulnerable populations.

“Prioritisation of commodities for agricultural production and trade policy interventions, targeting interventions, including nutrition education, to populations with the most potential to benefit; nutrition education is only effective when people can afford to comply with the recommendations and research on the relationship between food access and other food system factors and outcomes,” it said.

It added that these results can also foster collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders, such as policymakers, researchers and civil society actors that focus on food security, to devise strategies that tackle access, availability, and affordability of healthy diet effectively.

“Future research incorporating income can also be used to determine the proportion and number of the population that are unable to afford a healthy diet.”

The report said the retail food price data used in this analysis is collected by the NBS monthly from 10,534 informants spread across the country, from urban and rural outlets in each state and FCT.

“NBS collects these prices routinely for monitoring inflation, including prices of over 200 retail food items. Nearly 150 of these food items are potentially included in a healthy diet, and the price data for these items are used to compute the CoHD.

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“In Nigeria, CoHD is the minimum cost of foods needed to meet international recommendations defined in the Healthy Diet Basket (HDB), a globally relevant set of criteria that captures similarities across most national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG).

“The HDB was created as a comparable standard to calculate and compare the cost and affordability of healthy diets across countries; the HDB is most relevant for countries where there is not yet a quantified national FBDG, like Nigeria,” it said.