BUSINESS DAY
The average cost of making a pot of stew, a staple in Nigerian households has risen by 121.05 percent in one year. This means a minimum wage earner desiring a basic pot of stew must part with a quarter of his salary for such luxury. This highlights the country’s deepening food crisis, according to the PricePally 2024 Stew Index Report.
The report titled, “The cost of preparing stew in Lagos in 2024” revealed that between July 2023 and September 2024, the high food inflation rate doubled the price of key stew ingredients, including tomatoes, onions, and proteins.
It said the cost of preparing a pot of beef stew in Lagos surged from N8,060 in 2023 to N17,817 by September 2024; The cost of making chicken stew also climbed from N7,085 in 2023 to N15,034 in 2024, while turkey and goat meat stew prices spiked from N7,966 and N8,227 respectively in 2023 to N17,987 and N20,817 in 2024.
Nigerian household bears the burden
According to data from the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report (Expenditure and Income Approach) report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), household consumption also fell to N10.6 trillion from N22.3 trillion in real terms.
This decline can be attributed to inflation eroding real income, households have adjusted their spending habits by focusing only on essentials, leading to a sharp drop in discretionary spending.
Inflation has been one of Nigeria’s biggest headaches. It stood at 24.48 percent in January after the rebasing exercise.
Food inflation dropped to 26.08 percent. However, the rebased food inflation doesn’t mean a steep fall in food prices in Africa’s most populous nation in the review period.
The 2024 Stew Index Report further revealed that with Nigeria’s new minimum wage set at N70,000, a single pot of beef stew now consumes 25.45 percent of a minimum wage earner’s income if prepared once a month.
Comparatively, in 2023, it accounted for 26.87 percent of their monthly income to prepare a pot of beef stew once a month.
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