The crunching cash and petrol scarcity, rising insecurity and climate change have caused food crisis affecting more than 24.8 million Nigerians.
The lack of access to food has become more crunching in 26 out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The 2023 Cadre Harmonise (CH) result presentation workshop on Food and Nutrition Insecurity Analysis for Nigeria noted the dire situation on March 15 in Abuja.
A post-workshop result identified that food insecurity had been on the rise in recent years, with millions of Nigerians struggling to access food on a daily basis.
The March to May 2023 Cadre Harmonise (CH) analysis of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) unveiling the troubling situation was point of reference at the workshop.
FAO said millions of Nigerians could experience acute nutrition and food crisis between June and August, following the lingering fuel and cash scarcity in the country.
The Country Representative of FAO, Mr Fred Kafeero, said on March 22, 2023 that about 17.7 million people, including 14,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in 26 states and the FCT, will be in serious crisis or worse through May 2023.
The report identified Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) currency re-design policy as one of the key drivers of the crisis.
The report stated that the withdrawal of the old notes form circulation without commensurate supply of new banknotes created serious bottlenecks to households’ ability to access cash, as well as food.
“Insecurity, especially insurgency in the North East states, particularly in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, still persists.
“Armed banditry and kidnapping for ransom in some North West states such as Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna, as well as North Central states of Benue and Niger, have also lingered,’’ he Mr Kafeero said in the report.
The CH, a tool adopted by partners in the FSS, developed on request by the government as an early warning tool, to prevent and manage food and nutrition crisis, he explained.
He reported that the process in Nigeria was led by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), through the National Programme for Food Security (NPFS), in collaboration with other government agencies.
The programme is with technical and financial support from the FAO, World Food Programme (WFP), Save the Children, UNICEF, Mercy Corps, among others.
Dr Ernest Umakhihe, the Permanent Secretary in FMARD, at the workshop described the report which was first released in January 2023 as apt because Nigeria was going through post-covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine crisis.
He also confirmed that daunting insecurity which has continued to threaten Nigeria’s food and nutrition security and that these challenges have led to disruptions in food production and distribution systems.
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), noted that “food insecurity is a major challenge facing Nigeria and the African continent as a whole.
We need to invest in agriculture and improve access to credit and other resources for smallholder farmers to ensure that we can produce enough food to feed our growing population.”
Similarly, Dr. Adebayo Adedeji, Executive Director of the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies, emphasized the need for innovative solutions to address the issue of food insecurity.
“We need to promote sustainable farming practices, increase investment in irrigation and other technologies, and improve infrastructure to ensure that food can be transported to areas where it is needed most.”
Despite these challenges, there are also examples of successful interventions aimed at reducing food insecurity in Nigeria.
The Federal Government of Nigeria established the National Social Investments Programmes (NSIP) in 2016, to tackle poverty and hunger across the country.
The suite of programmes under the NSIP focuses on ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth and women.
Since 2016, these programmes combined have supported more than 4 million beneficiaries country-wide through a fair and transparent process supported by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning (MBNP) and other notable MDAs with aligned goals.
Meanwhile, UNICEF reports that it is working with the government and partners such as MSF and ALIMA, to invest in scaling up preventive nutrition interventions and ensure that vulnerable children have access to life-saving nutrition services.
In 2022, UNICEF with partners was able to reach approximately 650,000 children with life-saving nutrition services across the six states mentioned above.
