Cost of healthy diet stood at N858 in January — NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday the average cost of a healthy diet per day in the country was N858 in January.

The NBS stated this in its Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) report for January 2024 released in Abuja.

The bureau said the CoHD is the least expensive combination of locally available items that meet globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.

The NBS said COHD is used as a measure of physical and economic access to healthy diets.

It said: “This is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day excluding the cost of transportation and meal preparation.”

The agency noted that data on Retail Food Prices, Food Composition Data, and Healthy Diet Standards were required to compute the CoHD.

“In January 2024, the average CoHD was highest in the South-West at N1,045 per adult per day followed by the South-East at N986 per day.

“The lowest average CoHD was recorded in the North-West at N683 per adult per day.

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“At the state level, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo recorded the highest CoHD at N1,090, N1,087, and N1,063, respectively.

“Katsina and Niger recorded the lowest cost at N629 followed by Kano and Jigawa at N649 and N676 respectively.

“Animal-source foods were the most expensive food group recommendation to meet in January 2024, accounting for 38 percent of the total CoHD to provide 13 percent of the total calories.

“In the same vein, fruits and vegetables were the most expensive food groups in terms of price per calorie.

“They accounted for 12 percent and 14 percent respectively of the total CoHD while providing only seven per cent and five per cent of total calories in the Healthy Diet Basket.

“Legumes, nuts and seeds were the least-expensive food group on average, at six per cent of the total cost.”

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