Osun Third Highest With Cost Of Healthy Diet In Nigeria

Osun has been listed as one of the three top states with the highest cost of a healthy diet in the nation’s urban centres in June 2024.

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the two other states in the list was Ekiti and Ogun States, according to the latest data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS Cost of Healthy Diet report showed that it cost an average of N1,688 per person per day in Ekiti State; N1,621 in Ogun State, and N1,588 in Osun State in June 2024 to eat a healthy diet.

Other states are Delta – N1,523 and Lagos – N1,480, completing the list of the five states with the highest daily cost of healthy diet.

Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), an agency of the United Nations said the effects of inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it, have increased the costs and the unaffordability of a healthy diet around the world.

The medium learnt that in its May 2024 consumer price index report, the NBS noted that the average food inflation in Osun State increased with 44.57 percent on a year-on-year basis, making it the fourth state with highest food inflation in the period under review.

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Referred to as the state of the living spring, its food inflation grew to N949 in May 2024 from N657 in May 2023, while it grew to 0.02 percent on a monthly basis from N924 recorded in April 2024.

OSUN DEFENDER reports that in the last few months, there has been a traditional approach to food price control in the state.

Prominent traditional rulers including the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Olufi of Gbongan, Oba Adetoyese Oyeniyi, have banned all trade associations in their respective domain.

The move, according to them will regulate food prices and curtail negative activities of middlemen in the marketplaces.

According to the NBS, the Cost of a Healthy Diet (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.

“The national average Cost of a Healthy Diet was N1,241 in June 2024. This is 19.2% higher than the amount recorded in the previous month (May 2024, was N1,041). In June 2024, the average CoHD was highest in the South West at N1,545 per adult per day, compared to N956 per adult per day in the North West,” NBS stated.

Additionally, the World Bank stressed that, “A healthy diet is considered unaffordable when the diet cost exceeds the income available for food, defined as the per capita per day total income or expenditure minus the non-food expenditure of people living near the poverty thresholds as defined by the international poverty lines.”

FAO further added that the diet quality is a critical link between food security and nutrition.

Poor diet quality can lead to different forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity.