More Nigerians facing malnutrition as CoHD hits N1,346 per meal

It is becoming increasingly difficult for Nigerians to afford a single healthy meal per day due to the high cost of food items in the market.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its cost of healthy diet (CoHD) for September 2024 revealed that it cost an average of N1,346 to give a single adult a single healthy meal per day.

This amount, NBS said is an increase of 7.3 per cent when compared to the amount recorded in the previous month of August 2024 which was N1,255.

The report explained that the Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) is the least expensive combination of locally available items that meets globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.

It is used as a measure of physical and economic access to healthy diets, added that this is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day excluding the cost of transportation and meal preparation.

The report also showed that in September 2024, the average CoHD was highest in the South West at N1,598 per adult per day, compared to N1,144 per adult per day in the North West.

It noted that in recent months, the CoHD has risen faster than general inflation and food inflation.

“However, the CoHD and the food 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 report said.

Recently the World Food Programme (WFP) raised the alarm that nine million children are at risk of acute malnutrition in the country, adding that the number of children admitted for severe and moderate acute malnutrition has risen by 40 and 70 percent compared to 2023.