The national average Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) was N1,541 per adult per day in March 2026, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
In its “Cost of a Healthy Diet March 2026” report published on Tuesday, the statistics office said this shows an increase of 1.89 per cent when compared to the amount recorded in the previous month (February 2026 was N1,513).
The report said CoHD is the least expensive combination of locally available items that meet globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines.
It explained that it measures physical and economic access to healthy diets. It said this is a lower bound (or floor) of the cost per adult per day, excluding transportation and meal preparation costs.
“The national average Cost of a Healthy Diet was N1,541 per adult per day in March 2026. At the state level, Ekiti, Imo and Abia states recorded the highest cost at N2,091, N2,052, and N1,970, respectively. Adamawa, Federal Capital Territory and Taraba state accounted for the lowest costs at N1,004, N1,113 and N1,149, respectively.
“At the zonal level, the average CoHD was highest in the South-East zone at N1,899 per day, followed by the South-West zone at N1,801 per day. The lowest average Cost of a Healthy diet was recorded in the North-east zone at N1,233 per day,” the NBS said.
Cost share by food group
According to the bureau, animal source foods were the most expensive food group recommendations to meet in March, accounting for 39 per cent of the total CoHD to provide 13 per cent of the total calories.
It said fruits and vegetables were the most expensive food groups in terms of price per calorie; they accounted for 16 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, of total CoHD while providing only 7 per cent and 5 per cent of total calories in the Healthy Diet Basket.
It added that legumes, nuts, and seeds were the least-expensive food group on average, at 7 per cent of the total cost.
Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 15.69 per cent in April from 15.38 per cent in March 2026, the NBS said in its latest inflation report.
On a month-on-month basis, according to the report, the food inflation rate in April 2026 was 3.63 per cent, down by 0.54 percentage points from March 2026 (4.17 per cent).
On Tuesday, the statistics office said the CoHD had risen faster than general inflation and food inflation.
However, it said the CoHD and the food Consumer Price Index (CPI) are not directly comparable; the CoHD includes fewer items and is measured in Naira per day, while the food CPI is a weighted index.
Trends in the Cost of a Healthy Diet
The NBS said the (CoHD) has been rising steadily over the past year.
“As of March 2026, the CoHD was 4.38 per cent higher than in March 2025, increasing from N1,477 to N1,541. While the price of starchy staples and vegetables decreased, all other food groups experienced price increases.
“On a month-on-month basis, the cost increased by 1.89 per cent compared to February 2026 (N1,513). The increase was driven by the rise in prices across all food groups,” the bureau said.
The NBS said the most and least expensive places to buy a healthy diet in March 2026. Ekiti (Urban) topped the chart with the highest Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) at N2,288 per adult per day.
Conversely, it said Adamawa (Rural) offered the most affordable option at N979 for CoHD.
Interestingly, the bureau said some of the least-cost food items remained consistent across both locations. These items include maize (white) grains, bean white and shrimp white dried.
“However, price variations between these locations resulted in different costs per item. Also, some unique least-cost options emerged. For instance, in Ekiti (Urban), millet whole grain was the most affordable in the starchy staple food group, whereas in Adamawa (Rural), it was Garri White.
“In terms of the fats and oils food group, Ekiti (Urban) recorded palm oil as the most affordable, while Admawa (Rural) went for vegetable oil,” it said.
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Policy implications
The NBS noted that the Cost of a Healthy Diet provides important information about food access, a key aspect of food security useful for government, civil society, development partners, the private sector, and researchers.
For instance, it said that where the cost of a healthy diet is high, it is possible to identify which least-cost items and food groups are driving the high price.
Stakeholders can identify supply challenges in specific foods or groups, such as improved production, distribution, or market access.
“These results can also foster collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders, such as policymakers, researchers and civil society actors that focus on food security, to devise strategies that tackle access, availability, and affordability of a healthy diet effectively.
“Future research incorporating income can also be used to determine the proportion and number of the population that are unable to afford a healthy diet,” it said.
The report said the retail food price data used in this analysis is collected by the NBS monthly from 10,534 sources in both urban and rural areas across all Nigerian states.
“This data helps the NBS track inflation and includes prices for over 300 food items. These items are commonly part of a healthy diet, and their price data is used to calculate the Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD).
“In Nigeria, CoHD is the minimum cost of foods needed to meet international recommendations defined in the Healthy Diet Basket (HDB), a globally relevant set of criteria that captures similarities across most national Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG),” the NBS said.
It explained that the HDB was created as a comparable standard to calculate and compare the cost and affordability of healthy diets across countries, noting that the HDB is most relevant for countries where there is not yet a quantified national FBDG, like Nigeria.
