According to the World Bank, over 64 million Nigerians are at risk of needing emergency food and nutritional aid due to rising inflation, climate change, and other factors.
A new report on food security from the bank states that 107.5 million people living in West Africa and Central Africa region are in a stressed zone and might fall into a food crisis if additional shocks in the current farming season occur.
This new figure is almost double that of the 27 million people previously predicted by Oxfam, ALIMA, and Save the Children, who warned that food crises in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria could affect them.
The report also revealed that about 24.8 million Nigerians are currently suffering from acute hunger. It also revealed that the number of people experiencing crisis and worse acute food insecurity was the highest on record since the Global Report on Food Crises started in 2017.
The bank blamed persistent trade barriers, high transport costs, repercussions of the war in Ukraine, and currency depreciation in coastal countries for food price inflation, which is limiting households’ ability to access sufficient nutritious food.
On average, prices of major staple grains across West Africa are 25 per cent to 40 per cent higher than in the last five years on average.
The Food Crisis Prevention Network identifies civil insecurity, high inflation, and climate change as key factors aggravating the current food and nutrition security crisis.