Only 21% of Nigerian households are food guaranteed- Report

By James Moses (9News Nigeria-Jos)

With the rising cost of food and insecurity in the country, only about 21 percent of Nigerian households are food secure.

This is contained on the 2021 National Food Consumption and Micronutrients Survey report launched in collaboration with foreign partners and other stakeholders in the food sector.

The report also shows that aside this number, 79 percent households are food insecure in Nigeria, while 59 percent is moderately insecure and another 20 percent are severely food insecure.

Presenting the preview of the report, one of the researchers, Dr Olarewaju Isiaka, said about 41.5 percent households in the country did not have money to buy food in the past 7 days proceeding the survey, whereas, 4% households has very minimal.

He explained that the report which does not frequently come by said it focused on women in their productive age, children from 0-59 months and girls in their adolescent year.

On the issue of hygiene, he said about 23 percent households in Nigeria are not having toilet facilities.

Further breakdown of the report indicate that 62.9 percent of households in Nigeria within the period under review have access to borehole water system, while 17.4 percent households have access to protective well water.

Also, the report indicate that only 1.1 percent households have water piped to their access to pipe borne water.

In geographical level, it was shown that South East and South South zones had the honest percentage of pipe borne water and highest borehole access,whereas the Western and Northern regions fare better followed by South South geographical zone.

Speaking on the report, Country Director of GAIN, Dr Michael Ojo, said it was worrisome “that we are not going forward in water supply from 11-11 percent showing a decline of 10 percent within a period of ten years”.

He said the reason why Nigeria has issue with food system was because every stakeholder had been working in silos without addressing the root cause of problem.

Açcording to him, concerted efforts is needed to fix the nation’s food system, adding that what happen before and after the food system has to put in the right perspective.

He also said that 20-24% of food produced pre-post production usually waste away and called for increased capacity building and value addition.

-9News Nigeria.