By Jane Okafor, Abuja
ActionAid Nigeria has expressed deep concern over what it considered as the worsening level of poverty in the country and called for concerted efforts to tackle the menace urgently.
The organisation said that hunger, food insecurity, and rural poverty were palpable across the country’s six geopolitical zones, lamenting that millions of Nigerians continued to face unabated poor living conditions contrary to government claims of progress.
The Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Memedu, who made this known while speaking on Wednesday at a dialogue in Abuja to celebrate this year’s edition of World Food Day, said the crisis called for urgent intervention from all tiers of government.
Memedu identified insecurity, poor investment in agriculture and soaring food prices as factors that have continued to drive many families deeper down the hardship trove.
The 2025 World Food Day is anchored on the theme “Hand in Hand with a call for Better Food and a Better Future.”
According to Memedu, hunger has become widespread even in once-productive agricultural States such as Benue, Cross River, and Kaduna, where recurring violence and displacement have stymied efforts towards food production.
The organisation also lamented that farmers were increasingly unable to plant or harvest due to insecurity and economic shocks, leading to rising food prices and reduced access to basic nutrition.
Leaning on data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), he warned that over 30 million Nigerians currently risk facing acute hunger, stressing that the quantum of food-insecure Nigerians remained among the highest in the world despite marginal improvements in economic indicators.
He said, “Food is a basic necessity. No Nigerian should go to bed hungry. Today reminds us of the importance of food and the need for collective action against hunger and malnutrition.
“We are deeply concerned about the little progress Nigeria is making between 2024 and 2025. Food insecurity remains widespread, and insecurity continues to keep farmers away from their farmlands during both planting and harvest seasons.
“We are calling for urgent convening of a national poverty summit to harmonise fragmented policies into a single binding national action plan for food security and poverty eradication. Hunger and poverty are not just statistics, they are lived realities,” he stated.
Memedu said the rising cost of staple foods such as maize, yam, and cassava has forced families to ration meals and cut down on consumption, describing the situation as a lived reality, not just statistics.
He attributed the problem to weak governance and low public investment in agriculture, noting that Nigeria has failed to meet its Maputo Declaration commitment of allocating 10 per cent of the national budget to agriculture.
According to him, even when funds were budgeted, only about a quarter of the money is actually released for agricultural projects.
Memedu urged both federal and state governments to convene a national poverty summit to harmonise policies and establish l action plans for food security and poverty reduction.
He also called for stronger protection for farmers, particularly smallholders who contribute over 70 per cent of Nigeria’s food supply, as well as the adoption of agroecological and climate-resilient farming practices.
