Rita Odafe
A recent assessment conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates that a significant portion of households in Nigeria struggle to afford healthy and nutritious meals.
This NBS study, titled “Nigeria General Household Survey – Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024),” analyzes various demographic factors as well as education and health patterns in Nigeria, drawing comparisons between data collected in Wave 4 (2018/19) and Wave 5 (2023/24).
The report on food security mentioned that:
“Around two-thirds of households reported that financial limitations prevented them from consuming healthy, nutritious, or desirable foods over the past month.”
The findings indicated that 63.8 percent of households had to limit their food variety due to budget issues, while 62.4 percent were anxious about food shortages, and 60.5 percent noted they were eating less than necessary.
“From Wave 4 to Wave 5, the percentage of households concerned about food scarcity due to limited funds rose sharply from 36.9 percent to 62.4 percent,” the report noted.
In terms of energy access, the NBS findings highlighted that “82.2 percent of urban families have electricity, in contrast with only 40.4 percent in rural regions.
“Most cooking is done using traditional three-stone stoves (65.0 percent), primarily powered by firewood (70.2 percent), although the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is increasing. A considerable number of households lack proper toilet facilities and depend on tube wells or boreholes for drinking water. Additionally, waste disposal is largely informal, with 45.6 percent of households using public areas or bushes.”
