The national average cost of a healthy diet (CoHD) in Nigeria rose from N742 in November to N786 per adult, per day in December 2023.
This is according to latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Cost of Healthy Died (CoHD) report.
This represents an increase of N44 or a 5.9 per cent.
In Nigeria, CoHD is the minimum cost of food needed to meet international recommendations defined in the healthy diet basket (HDB), a globally relevant set of criteria that captures similarities across most national food-based dietary guidelines.
The HDB consists of food groups such as starchy staples, oils and fats, fruits, vegetables, legumes nuts and seeds and animal-source foods.
The report showed that Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states recorded the highest cost of a healthy diet per adult per day.
“The National average Cost of a Healthy Diet was N786 per adult per day in December 2023.
“At the State level, Ekiti, Osun and Ondo States recorded the highest cost with N1052, N1017, and N986, respectively, while the lowest total diet costs were recorded in Katsina, Niger and Adamawa at N594, N635, and N654, respectively,” NBS report stated.
At the zonal level, the average CoHD was highest in the south-west zone at N979 per day, followed by the south-east zone with N920 per day.
The lowest average CoHD by region was recorded in the north-west zone with N663 per day.
The NBS said the most expensive food group in the diet was animal-source foods (meat, eggs, and dairy), gulping 38 percent of the budget — however, they only contributed 13 per cent of the total calories consumed.
Fruits and vegetables were the most expensive food groups in terms of price per calorie; accounting for 12 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, of total CoHD while providing only 7 per cent and 5 per cent of total calories in the healthy diet basket.
The least-expensive food group on average was legumes, nuts, and seeds, at 6 per cent of the total cost.
