At least 31.8 million Nigerians, or 16 percent of the population analyzed, are expected to face crisis acute food insecurity between June and August 2024.
This projection comes from the World Food Programme, an international award recognizing significant contributions to improving food quality, quantity, or availability globally.
The information was sourced from the organization’s latest June to October 2024 outlook posted on its X account.
The WFP also stated that nearly 1 million people in Nigeria are projected to be in a state of emergency-level acute food insecurity.
They described the five phases of food insecurity on a scale of 1 to 5, where phase 1 represents minimal food insecurity, phase 2 indicates stressed food insecurity, phase 3 is crisis food insecurity, phase 4 is emergency food insecurity, and phase 5 is catastrophic food insecurity.
The statement revealed, “Between June and August 2024, 31.8 million people (16 percent of the population analyzed) are projected to face crisis or worse (Phase 3 or above) levels of acute food insecurity, with nearly 1 million people projected to be in Emergency (Phase 4).
This represents a 3 percentage point increase in the number of acutely food insecure people compared to the same time in the previous year.
Acute malnutrition levels remain high, above 10 percent, in the northern states (Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Katsina, and Zamfara), with 4.4 million children and 585,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women projected to be acutely malnourished in 2024.”
The WFP predicted that food insecurity would likely remain a significant concern due to a multidimensional crisis driven by weakening macroeconomic conditions, heightened insecurity, and subdued agricultural production in the northern part of the country.
“The security situation is likely to continue to deteriorate, exacerbating population displacement. This is a particular concern for the northern states, which have already seen an uptick in insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping in the first quarter of 2024. Insecurity has been disrupting agricultural livelihoods and affecting the functionality of markets. Insecurity results in high humanitarian access constraints, particularly in the northeast, restricting the delivery of assistance to government-controlled towns and their immediate surroundings.”
In March 2024, Nigeria’s inflation rate exceeded 33 percent year-on-year, eroding the already weak purchasing power of households in a country where 38 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
The naira has been highly unstable, with a yearly depreciation of 60 percent recorded in February 2024.
Due to below-average cereal production in 2023 and high transport costs, prices of major staples such as rice and maize were 105 and 241 percent higher, respectively, on a yearly basis, in February 2024.
“During the outlook, import restrictions amid declining foreign reserves, increasing farming costs, and high levels of conflict in the North East, North West, and parts of the North Central zones will likely impact the 2024 agricultural season. This will cause reduced yields and elicit further inflationary pressures,” the WFP noted.
