Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Abuja at risk of food insecurity, NBS alarms

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has sounded warning note that following the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, three states of the federation and the federal capital territory are in danger of looming hunger.

The NBS stated in it’s latest report on the impact of COVID-19 that the pandemic has increased food insecurity in the three states of Lagos, Kano and Rivers as well as the FCT, Abuja.

In the report, the NBS said, “Food insecurity appears to be prevalent across all four states, but especially in Rivers and FCT Abuja where 79 per cent of households and 72 per cent of households respectively reported having to skip meals since the start of the pandemic.

“Even if some people have resumed work, incomes may still be precarious, with larger shares of workers in Kano and Rivers engaged in agriculture and a smaller share of workers in Lagos engaged in industry than before the COVID-19 crisis,” it stated.

The bureau explained that the second quarter 2020 Labour Force Survey was collected by the NBS between the 17th of June and 8th of July 2020.

It said the report provides crucial information on households’ response to COVID-19 in the key states of Kano, Lagos, Rivers Abuja.

It added that the findings of the survey could be benchmarked against pre-crisis data from the 2018/19 Nigerian Living Standards Survey.