The national average Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) in Nigeria marginally increased to N1,035 in April this year, representing a 5.4% higher than the N982 paid by consumers for the meal in the preceding month, the National Bureau of Statistics has reported.
The CoHD is the least expensive combination of locally available items that meets globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.
According to the statistics agency, the CoHD is used as a measure of physical and economic access to healthy diets but it is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day excluding the cost of transportation and meal preparation.
The Bureau in its ‘Cost of Healthy Diet April 2024’ report published on Wednesday, disclosed that in the month under review, the average CoHD was highest in the South West at N1,406 per adult per day, compared to N781 per adult per day in North West.
It recalled that in recent months, the CoHD had risen faster than general inflation and food inflation.
The Bureau clarified, however, that the CoHD and the food CPI were not directly comparable as the CoHD includes fewer items and is measured in Naira per day while the food CPI is a weighted index.
