The price of a key ingredient for Nigeria’s favorite jollof rice dish more than doubled to a record high this year, highlighting the government’s struggle to control the cost-of-living crisis facing Africa’s most populous nation.
Prices in Lagos for a 50-kilogram (110.2-pound) bag of rice, the main ingredient for making jollof, rose 8% in December to 75,000 naira ($48.50) from the previous month, according to a market survey by consultancy SBM Intelligence, which publishes the jollof index.
Other ingredients, including vegetable oil, onions, and chicken, also increased in the survey conducted on Wednesday. In Abuja, the nation’s capital, rice was selling at 99,000 naira for a 50-kilogram bag.
In a country where the minimum wage is 70,000 naira a month, rising food prices mean that two out of three Nigerian households are going hungry, according to the nation’s statistics agency.
This has led to riots and stampedes as President Bola Tinubu’s administration struggles to curb inflation. The government’s attempts to control prices by declaring a state of emergency to improve food security and suspending import duties have not been effective.
“Cost of feeding has been on a steady increase, and Nigerians are not finding it easy,” said Stanley Ikechukwu, head of operations at SBM Intelligence. People are “just living day by day, hoping that the government policies take a positive turn, or there will be trouble in 2025,” he said.
In August, protesters marched through the streets in several Nigerian states, chanting “we are hungry.” As many as 21 people were killed in the unrest that month, and last week, about 48 people, including 35 children, died in stampedes in three different locations as charities handed out food, according to a police post on X on December 21.
“We earnestly pray that such misfortunes do not revisit our families and communities and that the lives of innocents are never again cut short,” Tinubu said in his Christmas message on Tuesday, referring to the stampedes.
Nigeria’s annual inflation rate reached a 28-year high of 34.6% in November, with food inflation accelerating to 39.9%, according to the nation’s statistics agency. Prices have sustained upward pressure despite the central bank raising the key interest rate by 875 basis points this year to a record 27.5% in November.
Since taking office in 2023, Tinubu has removed the currency’s peg to the dollar and ended fuel subsidies. His moves have been lauded by investors but have pushed up prices. The president, in a briefing on December 23, said he had no plans to impose price controls. Instead, he announced that the government has ordered 2,000 tractors and plans other incentives to boost food production.
“Everything is very expensive; take onions, for example: people cannot afford to buy onions, especially in the quantity they want because of the high price,” Ikechukwu said.
Watch the latest edition of BizTech below:
