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. This is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day excluding the cost of transportation and meal preparation.
Nigeria has been experiencing a consistent rise in inflation which peaked at 29.90 percent in January with food inflation also rising to an all-time high of 35.41 year-on-year.
The report also shows that at the Zonal level, the average CoHD was highest in the South West Zone at N1045 per day, followed by the South East Zone with N986 per day. The lowest average Cost of a Healthy diet was recorded in the North West Zone with N683 per day.
Osun, Ekiti and Ondo States recorded the highest cost with N1090, N1087, and N1063 respectively, while Katsina and Niger states accounted for the lowest cost with N629, followed by Kano and Jigawa with N649 and N676 respectively.
According to the NBS, animal source foods were the most expensive food group recommendation to meet in January, accounting for 38 percent of the total CoHD to provide 13 percent of the total calories. Fruits and vegetables were the most expensive food groups in terms of price per calorie; they accounted for 12 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of total CoHD while providing only 7 percent and 5 percent of total calories in the Healthy Diet Basket. Legumes, Nuts and Seeds were the least-expensive food group on average, at 6 percent of the total cost.