Several West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Gambia, proudly compete over who makes the best “jollof rice,” rice cooked in spicy tomato sauce. But in Nigeria, this cultural staple is becoming a luxury because of soaring inflation, while government support remains slow and inadequate.
Last month, SBM Intelligence, a geopolitical research and strategic communications firm, released its latest SBM Jollof Index. The report, titled “Staple Under Stress,” tracked food costs from September 2024 to March 2025, revealing that the cost of cooking one pot of jollof rice in Nigeria jumped to 25,486 naira (₦) from ₦21,300, a 19 percent spike. Prices of essential ingredients like rice, onions, tomatoes, and peppers have surged.
Nigeria has entered its worst cost-of-living crisis in nearly three decades, according to news and academic reports. The global advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, in its January 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook warned that inflation combined with inadequate social protection could push up to 13 million naira Nigerians into poverty this year.
Recovery from economic woes triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has been stifled by a series of poor policy decisions, including the abrupt removal in 2023 of a fuel consumption subsidy without sufficient compensatory measures.
While it is critical for governments to move away from fossil fuel subsidies, which disproportionally benefit the wealthy and delay the transition to renewable energy, it is equally critical that governments put in place adequate compensatory measures, which allow low-income households to access essentials, such as power, transport, goods, and services that may rise in cost after subsidy removal.
Nigeria lacks a comprehensive, rights-based social security system that guarantees income support across a person’s lifetime. As of 2022, just 14.8 percent of the population had access to at least one social protection benefit.
In October 2023, the government announced a ₦25,000 monthly cash transfer for three months to 15 million households to help cushion the impact of inflation. But so far, only about 5 million households have received payments. A government official told Human Rights Watch that implementation of the program has been slow due to efforts to “improve accountability” by linking the National Social Registry – used to identify “the poorest among the poor”– with the National Identification Number system.
In general, such programs are often costly to administer, prone to high exclusion errors, and burdened with bureaucratic hurdles that end up stigmatizing beneficiaries.
The authorities should instead take steps toward building a universal rights-aligned social security system, backed by clear strategies and progressive funding, to deliver comprehensive support to people.
Only then can staples like jollof rice remain something enjoyed by all, not just a privileged few.
