UN Agency: 14.5m Nigerians in Urgent Need of Food Amid Rising Inflation

Ndubuisi Francis

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) declared yesterday that high inflation across Nigeria, which impacts food prices, negatively affect household consumption, with no fewer than14.5 million people in urgent need of food and livelihood support between March and May 2022.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.    

In a new report released yesterday, the UN agency revealed that among north-eastern households surveyed by WFP’s Essential Needs Assessment, 55 per cent reported not having enough food.

It said: “The Government’s Humanitarian Situation Monitoring Task Force reports that among households newly arrived from areas inaccessible to humanitarian actors, 77 per cent experienced crisis or emergency-level food deprivation and hunger.

“High inflation across Nigeria, especially impacting food prices, has negatively affected household consumption, with 14.5 million people needing urgent food and livelihood support from March to May 2022…”

The report noted that Nigeria has experienced one of West Africa’s most severe currency devaluation in recent years, adding that Bureau De Change (BDC) naira exchange rate against the United States dollars have nearly halved since 2018.

Amid these economic challenges and worsening food security, WFP said it has continued to provide life-saving food, nutrition and livelihood support interventions to vulnerable people of the North-East states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, while continuing pilot support to Katsina and Zamfara in the North-West.

According to the UN agency, conflict had affected industry, infrastructure and displaced over 2.2 million people in the north-east and more recently, intra-communal clashes.

It stressed that crime had triggered the displacement of nearly one million people across the north-west and north-central zones, worsening food security and causing grave protection challenges to women and children.

WFP said it reached 679,117 people in May, 89 per cent of plan and 50,602 more than April.

It listed areas of assistance to include 5,232 new arrivals fleeing areas of Borno State that are hard-to-reach for humanitarian actors.

“WFP plans to continue scaling up assistance leading into the forthcoming July-August lean season.

“WFP allocated USD 4.27 million in electronic vouchers to 350,904 individuals via WFP-vetted vendors.

 In locations where criteria for cash transfers could not be met, WFP distributed 6,024 mt of domestically sourced produce, vegetable oil and salt, 910 mt more than April, an increase of 18 per cent,” it added

According to the agency, its nutrition support for pregnant and lactating women and children aged 6-59 months experiencing or at risk of malnutrition reached 133,917 children, caretakers and women with 691 netric tonnes of specialised nutritious food.

“WFP began the gradual resumption of seasonal livelihoods support in May, with plans to reach 14,304 people with asset creation and livelihoods activities by end June,” the report said.

The WFP is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations. It is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation focused on hunger and food security, and the largest provider of school meals.