Impact of COVID‐19 pandemic on financial health and food security in Nigeria: A survey‐based analysis

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Author: Simeon Oludiran Akinleye,Risikat Oladoyin Sunmola Dauda,Onyebuchi Iwegbu,Oluwaseyi Omowunmi Popogbe
• Date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2859

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on financial health and food

security in Nigeria: A survey-based analysis

Simeon Oludiran Akinleye

1

| Risikat Oladoyin Sunmola Dauda

1

|

Onyebuchi Iwegbu

1

| Oluwaseyi Omowunmi Popogbe

2

1

Department of Economics, Faculty of Social

Sciences, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

2

Department of Economics, College of

Business and Social Sciences, Crawford

University, Ogun State, Nigeria

Correspondence

Simeon Oludiran Akinleye, Department of

Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences,

University of Lagos, Akoka-Yaba, Lagos,

Nigeria.

Email: soakinleye@unilag.edu.ng

This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the health, food

security and financial lives of Nigerian households. The data for the study were col-

lected from 813 households from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria using a ques-

tionnaire and the results were analysed using descriptive statistics and andordinal

logistic regression model. The ordinal regression model is appropriate for regression

results with ordinal scales as the dependent variable. The findings reveal that the

COVID-19 pandemic has affected households' personal savings significantly. The

majority of the households' healthcare financing is borne out of their personal income

and savings in the absence of a health insurance scheme. Households experiencing

worsening financial status largely did not have food during the pandemic. Many

households have a positive expectation that they will recover from the unfavourable

financial condition they are currently experiencing and there is a strong traditional

support system existing in the localities during the study period. Furthermore, food

insecurity during the pandemic was significantly occasioned by an increase in prices,

a fall in income, adverse financial well-being and insufficient welfare benefit provi-

sions. The study recommends, amongst others, the need to urgently enhance the

economic and financial well-being of the Nigerian populace to guide against the dev-

astating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security in Nigerian households.

This can be achieved through robust fiscal and monetary policy mix in ensuring sus-

tained development trajectory.

KEYWORDS

COVID-19 pandemic, food security, health expenditure, ordinal logistic regression

1|INTRODUCTION

Many countries in the world have, over the years, suffered from rising

food insecurity (Abdulkadyrova et al., 2016; Gorton et al., 2010); with

a greater impact experienced in African countries (Chavas, 2017;

Ogwuche et al., 2018; Shukla et al., 2018). This is reflected in

increased food prices with significant proportion of income spent on

food resulting in many households becoming more impoverished

(Falola, 2020; Headey & Martin, 2016; Mkhawani et al., 2016). Indeed,

the link between food insecurity and poverty has been reported in the

literature (Devereux, 2015; Lamidi, 2019). The problem of food inse-

curity in Nigeria is therefore not surprising since the country has the

highest poverty rate in Africa, with 89 million Nigerians living in pov-

erty, as of 2018 (Kharas et al., 2020). While it is expected that an

increase in the food supply is needed to satisfy the growing popula-

tion, it is unlikely that food prices will fall (Abdulkadyrova et al., 2016)

and low-income countries are worst hit by food security and

increased prices' crisis (FAO, 2009; Kalkuhl, 2016).

In recent times, the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted food prices

in many countries of the world (Glauber et al., 2020). Again, before

Received: 6 August 2020 Revised: 5 November 2022 Accepted: 17 March 2023

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2859

J Public Affairs. 2023;23:e2859. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2859