Branded vegetable cooking oils are more expensive than unbranded oils as surveyed in different in markets in Lagos, Nigeria. The price difference ranges from ₦666 to ₦3,186.

Flourish logoA Flourish chart
Hers is a reality reflecting the current frustration of an estimated 87 million poor Nigerians, trapped in the web of an economy with one of the highest food prices in the world and a high unemployment rate.

The ugly situation combined with a rising population rate, sinks six Nigerians into extreme poverty each minute, according to a 2018 report by the Brookings Institution. The global research body in 2019 forecast that Nigeria will be home to 110 million people living in extreme poverty by the year 2030, if it is unable to change its current trajectory.

At 21.97 percent as of February, Trading Economics, an open data source on global food inflation, ranks Nigeria’s food inflation 11th highest among 169 countries.