Nigeria
- 8.7 million
- people are food insecure in northeast Nigeria
- 60%
- of people nationwide live below the poverty line
- Over 2 million
- people internally displaced in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states
With over 182 million people, Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and the seventh largest in the world. The annual growth rate of the population is approximately 2.7 per cent, and more than half the population are under 30 years of age.
Nigeria is the 10th largest producer of crude oil in the world and achieved lower-middle-income status in 2014. However, conflict in its Northeast region has displaced over 2 million people and left another 8.7 million food insecure in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states. Three million of them are in Borno State, the epicenter of the insurgency.
What the World Food Programme is doing in Nigeria
-
Food assistance
-
WFP uses either food or cash transfers to support displaced people living in camps or with host communities, as well as vulnerable host populations. Throughout 2017 and 2018, WFP assistance reached 1.2 million people every month.
-
Nutrition
-
WFP assists with specialized nutritious food children under 5 at risk of malnutrition, and pregnant and nursing women. Jointly with UNICEF and ACF, WFP delivers an integrated package of essential health and nutrition services to prevent and treat acute malnutrition. Surveys in IDP camps in Maiduguri, Borno state, show a dramatic drop in malnutrition rates. However, these still remain high in more remote areas.
-
Resilience
-
In collaboration with the Nigerian Government and other partners, WFP is preparing strategies to combine short-term assistance with longer-term interventions to build people’s resilience.
-
Logistics and emergency telecommunications
-
WFP supports the humanitarian community in northeast Nigeria in addressing the main logistics and telecommunication gaps, including storage augmentation in key operational areas.
-
UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS)
-
WFP provides scheduled air transport to the entire humanitarian community, including three helicopters to carry vital relief – vaccines, medicine, medical equipment and staff – to hard-to-reach, isolated areas.
Nigeria news releases
Go to pagePartners and donors
Find out more about the state of food security in Nigeria
Visit the food security analysis pageOperations in Nigeria
Contacts
Office
Asokoro
Nigeria