Thirty-two percent of Nigerians—about 64.3 million people—do not have enough food to eat, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations agency. The WFP reports that across 19 countries, 170 million people face insufficient food consumption.
In the March 28 update of “HungerMapLIVE: Western Africa Insights and Key Trends,” the nations with the highest prevalence of insufficient food consumption were listed as Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Liberia, the Central African Republic, Togo, Guinea‑Bissau, and Nigeria.
The World Bank’s latest Food Security Update shows that food insufficiency in Nigeria rose from 29 percent to 32 percent over the past three months. The bank described the overall food and nutrition situation in Nigeria and other West African countries as challenging for a large share of their populations. Quoting the WFP, the bank noted that the countries with the highest prevalence of insufficient food consumption, in order of severity, are: Niger (18.2 million people, 81 percent of the population), Mali (13.9 million, 73 percent), Burkina Faso (13 million, 66 percent), Guinea (7.7 million, 62 percent), Chad (9.2 million, 57 percent), Sierra Leone (4.4 million, 53 percent), Cameroon (10.2 million, 40 percent), Liberia (1.7 million, 38 percent), the Central African Republic (1.6 million, 35 percent), Togo (2.7 million, 34 percent), Guinea‑Bissau (0.6 million, 34 percent), and Nigeria (64.7 million, 32 percent).
The World Bank defines insufficient food consumption as “poor or borderline” food consumption, measured by the Food Consumption Score, and clarifies that this differs from food insecurity. The bank warns that the food‑security situation in West Africa is expected to worsen as the dry season progresses. It also highlighted that domestic food‑price inflation remains high, affecting not only Africa but also North America, Latin America, South Asia, Europe, and Central Asia.
Comments are closed for this story.