Many Nigerian families can no longer afford three square meals a day. Some have even resorted to skipping meals for the whole day as the harsh conditions brought about by President Bola Tinubu economic polices continue to unleash hardships.
Giving a breakdown of the rising cost of living the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that because of dwindling income, scarcity of food commodities and insecurity, Nigerian are finding it hard to cope with the new realities.
The NBS in its latest General Household Survey Panel (Wave 5) report conducted in collaboration with the World Bank said 65% of Nigerian families are unable to afford healthy meals due to lack of funds.
It also said that the impact of the increase in food items, food shortages is affecting 71 percent of households which represents more than a third of households in the past year.
These shortages and its effect were most prominent in in June, July, and August, exacerbating the food insecurity crisis, the NBS stated.
It said, “Approximately two out of three households (65.8 percent) reported being unable to eat healthy, nutritious or preferred foods because of lack of money in the last 30 days.
“63.8 percent of households ate only a few kinds of food due to lack of money; 62.4 percent were worried about not having enough food to eat, and 60.5 percent ate less than they thought they should,” said the NBS report.
It added that 12.3 percent reported that at least one person in the household went without eating for a whole day.
Also, about 20.8 percent of households had to borrow food or rely on help from friends or relatives.
“In general, households in the southern zones report more incidents related to food security than those in northern zones. For example, in the southern zones, the proportion of households reporting that they had to skip a meal ranged from 50.1 percent in Southwest to 62.4 percent in Southeast, while in the northern zones this share varied from 34.0 percent in North Central to 48.3 percent in Northeast,” the report findings showed.
