The Challenge of Achieving Food Security During Turbulent Times The Case of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Isabelle Tsakok

No 2308, Policy briefs on Agriculture Markets, Policies and Food Security from Policy Center for the New South

Abstract: Nigeria has the potential to be an economic powerhouse, but food insecurity stalks a large share of its population. Over the last fifteen years, undernutrition has increased from over 7% (2004-06) to nearly 13% of the population (2017-2019). The COVID-19 pandemic of course exacerbated health and nutrition problems. With the current high inflation, an additional 4 million people have been pushed into poverty, from 90 million (Dec. 2022) to 94 million (April 2023) (WBG, June 2023). Since it became an oil-driven economy in the early 1970s, Nigeria has experienced boom- and-bust cycles, which undermine long-term investment in the transformation of its agricultural economy, and the productivity of the non-oil economy. Successive governments have been unable to mobilize the surplus of the boom years to invest in a diversified, high-productivity economy, leading the structural problems undermining high productivity growth to pile up. Since COVID-19, the global environment has become more challenging for emerging economies to borrow and invest, but there are opportunities, especially for African governments with access to Africa-wide markets in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The new Government of Bola Tinubu, who became President of Nigeria in May 2023, has taken a first major reform step: It eliminated the costly and regressive subsidy on petroleum.

Date: 2023-09
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