The cost of basic food items that meet minimum nutrient requirements has almost doubled within a year, thereby outing healthy diets beyond the reach of more Nigerians.
This is contained in a new official data released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
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The latest “Cost of Healthy Diet” report showed that the national average cost of a healthy diet rose by 96.2% to N938 per day in February 2024 from N473 per day a year earlier. It also rose by 9.32% from N858 in January.
The “Cost of Healthy Diet” metric assesses the availability, price, and nutritional composition of retail food items to identify the most cost-effective combination meeting the requirements for a healthy diet.
It added that in the most recent month, the “Cost of Healthy Diet” continued to rise at a faster rate than Food Consumer Price Index, CPI, which rose approximately 4% in the past month compared to 9% for “Cost of Healthy Diet”.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
