According to the World Bank’s September food security report, Nigeria is ranked fifth globally for food inflation.
The report also places Nigeria third in Africa, behind Malawi and Liberia, as the nation grapples with declining food security due to ongoing conflicts in crucial agricultural regions and the impacts of climate change.
Haiti tops the global rankings with a 12% year-on-year increase in food inflation, followed by Malawi, Vietnam, and Liberia.
The report highlights that Nigeria’s soaring food inflation and worsening food insecurity are primarily driven by escalating conflicts in food-producing areas and the increasing effects of extreme weather events like floods and droughts.
Between August 2023 and September 2024, Nigeria experienced an alarming 28% rise in the number of people facing food insecurity, with over 1 million individuals newly encountering high levels of hunger.
The World Bank’s findings align with other reports indicating that food insecurity in Nigeria has been exacerbated by a combination of disrupted agricultural production, skyrocketing food prices, and market disruptions spurred by insecurity and climate-related disasters.
Recent data from the Cadre Harmonisé analysis, referenced by the World Bank, reveals that approximately 1.6 million hectares of land across Nigeria have been inundated, including 342,650 hectares of essential cropland.
These floods have impacted 685,770 vulnerable individuals, particularly in the Northern and Niger Delta regions, where insecurity is already prevalent. This contributes to the escalating crisis, as Nigeria reported a food inflation rate of 40.87% in June 2024—a 28-year high—before experiencing a slight decline.
The insecurity plaguing the country’s northern farming regions has also taken a heavy toll. A report by S.B. Morgan Intelligence documented that at least 1,356 farmers were killed between 2020 and 2024, primarily in the North.
Farmers in the region are often forced to pay up to N100,000 merely to access their land because of rampant insecurity, further crippling agricultural productivity.
Earlier in 2024, the World Bank projected that seven Northern Nigerian states would face severe hunger, while the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recently estimated that 32% of Nigeria’s population—about 60 million people—now faces hunger, a sharp rise driven by soaring food prices and environmental calamities.
This crisis is expected to intensify in the coming months, fueled by an increase in petrol prices announced by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and ongoing flooding throughout the country.
As Nigeria confronts structural challenges stemming from climate change and insecurity, the outlook for food inflation remains dire, placing additional strain on the country’s food supply chains and vulnerable populations.
