The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Thursday that Nigeria’s average Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) marginally declined to N1,255 in August 2024 from N1,265 in the preceding month, representing 0.8% month-on-month decline,
The CoHD is the least expensive combination of locally available items that meets globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.
It is used as a measure of physical and economic access to healthy diets and it is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day, excluding the cost of transportation and meal preparation.
The statistics agency in its ‘Cost of Healthy Diet August 2024’ disclosed that in the month under review, the average CoHD was highest in the South West at N1,554 per adult per day, compared to N1,014 per adult per day in the North West.
It recalled that in recent months, the CoHD had risen faster than general inflation and food inflation.
The Bureau, however, clarified that the CoHD and the food CPI were not directly comparable; as the CoHD includes fewer items and it is measured in Naira per day, while the food CPI is a weighted index.
According to the report, food environments determine a household’s physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for an active and healthy life.
The NBS further indicated in the report that a suite of indicators known as the Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet (CoAHD) had been developed to improve the measurement of food access and are now monitored globally by the United Nations and the World Bank as a metric of food security.
