Africa’s most populous nation with 210 million inhabitants, Nigeria competes with India for the largest number of poor in the world. But battered by the double economic impact of low global oil prices and the pandemic, the World Bank estimates Nigeria’s soaring inflation and food prices pushed another seven million people into poverty in 2020. Food prices have increased more than 22 percent since the start of the coronavirus crisis, according to official statistics. As a result, close to 17 million children in Nigeria are undernourished, giving the country the highest level of malnutrition in Africa and second highest in the world. Each year 40 percent of Nigeria’s total food production is lost or wasted, according to the World Bank.

Source: The Guardian July 02, 2021 06:00 UTC