ABUJA, Nigeria — Food prices across Nigeria have remained persistently high despite government interventions and food imports valued at N7.65 trillion in 2025, raising concerns about the effectiveness of policy measures aimed at easing cost pressures on households.
Okay News reports that data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows food and beverage imports increased from N3.83 trillion in 2023 to N6.58 trillion in 2024, and further to N7.65 trillion in 2025, even as food inflation stood at 14.31 percent year-on-year in March 2026.
The Federal Government spent N9.74 billion on food palliatives in 2024, according to data from BudgIT’s GovSpend platform. This followed a 2023 intervention that allocated N5 billion each to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for rice and fertiliser procurement, totalling N185 billion for the purchase of 100,000 bags of rice and other grains.
Nigeria’s food import bill rose to approximately $10 billion in 2023, including $3 billion spent on grains. In 2024, the Federal Government introduced a zero-duty levy on selected food imports to ease soaring prices, helping drive food inflation down from 40.8 percent in June 2024 to 8.89 percent in January 2025.
Agricultural economist Dr. Adebayo Oladipo said weak supply chains and post-harvest losses limit the impact of government spending. “Nigeria loses a significant portion of its harvests to post-harvest losses. Until we fix storage and processing, we will continue to see scarcity in the markets even when production improves,” he said.
Development expert Dr. Zainab Usman highlighted rising fuel costs as a major driver of food inflation through higher transport expenses. “When fuel prices increase, transportation becomes more expensive, and that cost is passed on at every stage from farmgate to wholesale to retail,” she noted.
Abuja-based economist Ibrahim Yusuf pointed to currency pressures, stating that exchange rate volatility has significantly increased the cost of imported food and agricultural inputs. “Even local production is affected because many inputs are priced in foreign currency,” he said.
Security challenges in food-producing regions and climate variability including floods and droughts have compounded supply constraints, according to experts.
The Federal Government recently unveiled a N1 billion reform of the agricultural education system and approved a N250 billion facility for the Bank of Agriculture to provide smallholder farmers with access to credit at single-digit interest rates. In September 2025, the Bank of Agriculture secured a $1 billion intervention facility in partnership with the African Export-Import Bank to strengthen the agricultural value chain.
