An estimated 3.9 million Nigerian children are suffering from malnutrition in the form of wasting, experts have warned, raising concerns that rising food prices and poverty are undermining children’s development and threatening the country’s economic future.
They said the coexistence of undernutrition, overweight and obesity had compounded Nigeria’s nutrition crisis, demanding urgent attention to the economic and food-system challenges that prevent households from accessing adequate, nutritious meals.
The experts spoke at the 2026 Nestlé Business Journalism and Nutrition Programme, organised in partnership with Pan-Atlantic University for journalists, yesterday.
A nutrition scientist at the University of Ibadan, Dr Ibukun Afolami, cited figures indicating that 3.9 million Nigerian children were affected by wasting, a form of undernutrition in which a child weighs too little for their height.
Afolami warned that the consequences of poor nutrition extended beyond children’s physical appearance to their cognitive development, educational performance and productivity in adulthood.
“If one out of every three Nigerian children is stunted because of inadequate nutrition, what does it say about the economy we are building for the future?” Afolami asked.
The wider burden is reflected in the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, which recorded stunting among 40 per cent of children under five, wasting among eight per cent and underweight among 27 per cent. These are distinct measures of undernutrition and should not be added together as a total.
Afolami explained that stunting reflects impaired growth, leaving children too short for their age, while wasting concerns low weight for height and underweight concerns low weight for age.
The nutrition scientist also drew attention to overweight and obesity, warning that Nigeria faced the challenge of inadequate nutrition alongside diet-related conditions such as diabetes and stroke.
Afolami urged journalists to examine the forces shaping what Nigerians eat, including food production, availability, prices, marketing and public policy, rather than treating nutrition solely as a matter of individual choice.
The scientist said reporting should connect household experiences with the weaknesses in the food system that make nutritious diets difficult to obtain.
Also speaking, media scholar and public affairs professional, Dr Richard Ikiebe, said inflation and declining purchasing power were forcing families to make food choices that could compromise their health.
“There is no household in Nigeria that chooses its diet in a vacuum. Choice of diet is a function of capacity. It is a function of money in the pocket.”
Ikiebe cited the purchase of rotten tomatoes by some women as an illustration of the difficult choices confronting households unable to afford better-quality food.
He urged journalists to look beyond advice about healthy eating and investigate the economic, political and social conditions determining whether families could put such advice into practice.
According to him, the rising cost of bread and the reduction of protein in household meals offered practical starting points for reporting on the relationship between food prices, income and nutrition.
Ikiebe also encouraged scrutiny of those who control different stages of the food chain and how their activities affect availability and affordability.
He identified insecurity, transportation difficulties, inadequate storage and food losses as issues deserving closer journalistic attention because of their effects on farmers, supplies and consumer prices.
The speakers maintained that nutrition reporting should make these connections clear, showing how decisions on production, distribution and pricing eventually affect the quality of meals available to families.
They called for greater attention to the underlying causes of poor nutrition, warning that the implications reached beyond household welfare to the health, learning capacity and future productivity of Nigeria’s children.