The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, The National Average Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) per adult a day stood at N1,035 as of April.
The National Bureau of Statistics revealed this in its CoHD report for April 2024, released on Wednesday in Abuja.
The NBS said the CoHD in April increased by 5.4 per cent compared to the N982 recorded in March.
The NBS said the CoHD was the least expensive combination of locally available items that met globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.
He said “This is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day, excluding the cost of transportation and meal preparation.”
He also said that to compute the CoHD indicator, the following data on retail food prices, food composition data, and healthy diet standards were required.
The NBS also said that in April, the average CoHD was highest in the South-West at N1,406 per adult per day, followed by the South-East at N1,190 per day.
The lowest average CoHD was recorded in the North-West at N781 per adult per day.
The NBS further said that at the state level, Ekiti, Ogun, and Osun recorded the highest CoHD at N1,483, N1,447, and N1,417, respectively.
The NBS further said Katsina and Kogi recorded the lowest CoHD at N709, followed by Kaduna and Nasarawa at N756 and N769, respectively.
The NBS said since the first CoHD report by the bureau in October 2023, CoHD had steadily increased.
“The CoHD in April 2024 is 40 per cent higher than what was recorded in October 2023 at N703 and 5 per cent higher than CoHD in Mach 2024, which was N982.
“The food groups that have driven the increases in CoHD the most are vegetables, starchy staples, legumes, nuts, and seeds. The cost of meeting the recommendations for oil and fats has changed the least since March 2024.”
It was further noted that animal-source foods were the most expensive food group recommendation to meet in April, accounting for 36 percent of the total CoHD and providing 13 percent of the total calories.
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