As Nigerians continue to grapple with economic challenges and hardship, a report from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said Nigeria’s hunger score, previously 103rd in 2022, hits 109th in 2023, dropping six times out of 125 countries in one year.
According to the report, this decline puts the country on 28.3 per cent of countries facing food insecurity in the Global Hunger Index.
WFP said several reasons contribute to the challenge including, local and regional challenges, exacerbated by global events. “Pervasive insecurity, poor macroeconomic conditions and political tensions characterised January and February 2023, with recurrent displacement of more than 1.2 million people in the north-west and north-central states and ongoing and widespread displacement affecting 2.3 million people in the north-east,” the report says.
It added the “the disruption of household traditional agricultural livelihoods due to limited or no access to farmland, coupled with scarce non-farm opportunities in garrison towns in the north-east, has forced some vulnerable households to risk harm and secondary displacement by returning to insecure areas, street begging, engaging in exploitative activities, or resorting to other negative coping strategies in search of livelihoods amid ongoing shocks.”
The report says the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) naira redesign, facilitated under Godwin Emefiele, leaves a terrible effect on the economy.
In the report partly quoted, “Nigeria’s harvest season spans into January, leading to lower food prices and stable household consumption patterns. However, by February 2023, rising hunger across Nigeria’s northern states – the mainstay of the country’s grain supply – reflected a complex combination of persistent and unprecedentedly high poverty levels, concurrent conflicts, and harsh climatic conditions. These were compounded by floods that affected harvests across the country in 2022.
“Agro-food businesses, primarily reliant on imports, faced additional challenges from high transportation costs propelled by the depreciation of the Nigerian Naira and the disruption of global supply chains related to the Ukraine crisis. The shortage of cash notes in January and February 2023 resulting from the redesign of the national currency hindered business transactions and led to a 22.12 percent surge in food prices, making them unaffordable for the vulnerable households already struggling with poverty.”
“After over 14 years of violent conflict, life in the northeast States of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe has become increasingly challenging, especially for internally displaced persons (IDPs), some in camps since 2014. In the north-central and northwestern states, killings and abductions by armed groups forced rural households to move to urban areas. Persistent insecurity, limited access to farmland, dire macroeconomic conditions, and a widening gap between available resources and requirements further exacerbated the situation.”
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Jerome Kalu
Jerome Kalu is currently the Senior Correspondent of PIJAlance in Lagos. He was previously the Campus Information Desk (CID) Editor.