Nigeria tops the rest of the world as the country with the highest number of poundo yam people living in it, followed by India who used to top the list. Furthermore, the statistics shows that every day, more people fall into poverty in Nigeria while more people come out of poverty on a daily basis in India.
One of the criteria for calculating this is the availability of Food and other basic living needs. Food, in general, has been seen as a basic need but in Nigeria, it looks more like a luxury. Prices of foodstuffs in Nigeria increases often without reduction and control due to inflation. Nigeria has more than 23 million people living in poverty despite the abundance of fertile soil, human resources and great climate. And the number is increasing daily. National Bureau of Statistics stated that an average Nigerian leaves below a dollar per day. This can be seen from the salary structure of the federal and state government where the minimum wage is 30,000 Naira per month.
The figure is miserable after subtracting basic expenses such as feeding and transport to work. The remainder can barely be used for something tangible. As you read on, you’ll see the prices of foodstuffs and some of the reasons for the rise and fall in prices. The fact that prices of some foodstuffs increase across the country doesn’t mean some don’t come down. The most consumed food in Nigeria, rice, had a crash in recent months. 17,500 in some parts of Lagos.
Some sellers claim that Nigerian locally grown rice has penetrated into the market and resulted in a rise in competition. This, however, reduced the price of imported rice in the market. This sort of change has also been witnessed in garri. Generally, the crash in the price of garri was reduced by over 50 percent during late 2018. Unfortunately, there was a rise in price on some common foodstuffs like egusi seed and ogbono. For egusi, the price fluctuates regularly as the bulk of it consumed in the country is imported. The price is affected by the continuous rise and fall of the Naira-Dollar exchange rates.
Similarly, the price has of ogbono has been fluctuating for a while. Find below the list of some general foodstuff in Nigeria and their prices. There are several spices found in the African kitchen to make sweet delicacies. Without these spices, any food made will be tasteless. This is to say that the work of spices aside nutritional value is also to add taste to food. Here, I’ve compiled a price list of some popular spices needed to cook a basic Nigerian dish.