The Federal Government has commenced the process of developing the Food and Nutrition Security Crisis Preparedness Plan (FNSCPP) to mitigate and prevent the looming food and nutrition crises in the country.

Speaking at the National Food and Nutrition Stakeholders meeting on the Development of Food and Nutrition Security Crisis Preparedness Plan (FNSCPP) in Abuja, the Director, Nutrition and Food Safety, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Nuhu Adamu Kilishi, lamented that Nigeria had the largest number of food-insecure people in the world, equivalent to almost the population of Ghana.

Kilishi noted that about 31 million people across 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were hungry and did not know where their next meal would come from by the June-August 2025 lean season.

He stated that 1.2 million of the 31 million were expected to experience emergency levels of acute food insecurity and very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality, necessitating urgent humanitarian assistance. Kilishi observed that the highest number of food-insecure people were in Kaduna (2.3 million), Katsina (2.0 million), Lagos (1.8 million), and Kano (1.8 million)

He said: “Only 20 per cent of Nigerians are sure of their next meal, the other 80 per cent are not. So we need to rise and solve these problems. Two out of every three children suffer from child food poverty, and Nigeria ranked number one in Africa and two in the world in terms of the number of children malnourished. Moderate and severe food insecurity has been rising steadily from 35 per cent in 2014 to about 74 per cent now. More than 50 per cent of the population in many states cannot afford a healthy diet, and nearly 90 per cent in some states.”

The Director, Social Development in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Sanjo Faniran, revealed that the Federal Government was considering the review of the National Development Plan to ensure that most of the interventions required were embedded in a National Development Plan.

On her part, the National Project Manager for Accelerated Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRIN), MrsOjuolape Solanke, noted that with the very bad reputation of being the second highest in the burden of stunting for children at a prevalence of 40 per cent, Nigeria had a very big problem in its hands.