Only 21% of Nigerian households are food secure – New Report

A new report has revealed that only about 21 per cent of Nigerian households are food secure.

This was revealed in the National Food Consumption and Micronutrients Survey report launched in Abuja by the Federal government in collaboration with foreign partners and other stakeholders in the food sector.

The report also shows that 59 per cent of Nigerians are moderately food insecure and another 20 per cent are severely food insecure.

Presenting the preview of the report, one of the researchers, Dr Olarinwaju Isiaka said about 41.5 percent of households in the country did not have money to buy food in the past 7 days preceding the survey, whereas, 4% of households had very minimal.

He explained that the report focused on women in their productive age, children from 0-59 months and girls in their adolescent years.

On the issue of hygiene, he said about 23 percent of households in Nigeria are not having toilet facility facilities.

Further breakdown of the report indicates that 62.9% of households in Nigeria within the period under review have access to improved water sources and another 42.6% have access to borehole water systems, while 17.40% of households have access to protective well water.

Also, the report says 1.1% of households have water piped into access to pipe-borne water.

On the geo-political level, it was shown that South East and South South zones had the lowest percentage of pipe-borne water and the highest borehole access whereas the Western and Northern regions fare better followed by South South geo-political zones.