A pot of stew now costs 121.05% more as Nigeria’s living costs rise

The cost of making Nigeria’s staple stew has more than doubled in Lagos within a year, highlighting the deepening cost-of-living crisis in Africa’s most populous nation. According to the PricePally 2024 Stew Index Report, preparing a pot of beef stew now costs ₦17,817—soaring by 121.05% from ₦8,060 in 2023—as households grapple with surging food prices and inflation.

Between 2023 and 2024, the cost of stew ingredients surged dramatically. A pot of chicken stew now costs ₦15,034, more than double the ₦7,085 price from the previous year, while the cost of goat meat stew skyrocketed by 153.03%, rising from ₦8,227 to ₦20,811. Even a protein-free stew saw a steep increase, climbing from ₦4,387 in 2023 to ₦11,317 in 2024.

The sharp rise in stew preparation costs reflects a broader trend of escalating food prices in Nigeria due to supply chain disruptions and naira depreciation. Food inflation stood at 24.08% in January 2025, down from 39.84% recorded in December 2024, after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) implemented a rebased Consumer Price Index (CPI) that altered the weighting of key components in the inflation basket.

The challenge hits low-income earners the hardest. With the new minimum wage at ₦70,000 per month, a minimum wage earner would now spend 25.45% of their salary to cook just one pot of beef stew per month—a significant burden compared to 24.42% under the old minimum wage of ₦33,000.

Tomatoes, which cost ₦1,506 per kilogram in July 2023, climbed to ₦2,625 by September 2024, representing a 21.7% year-on-year increase. Onions saw a dramatic jump from ₦971.86 per kilogram in 2023 to ₦3,000 in September 2024, a staggering 200% increase in just nine months.

“For tomatoes, one definite factor is their seasonality,” said Basil Abia, co-founder of Veriv Africa. “When they’re out of season, it’s super expensive to get them. Tomatoes also suffer from very high post-harvest losses due to our poor infrastructure—from transportation to storage. On average, tomatoes can have a 40% to 50% loss ratio, and in some parts of Nigeria, that loss can be as high as 80%.”

Beef, which costs ₦4,050 per kilogram in January 2024, surged to ₦6,500 by September. Goat meat, which was ₦3,856 in July 2023, now costs ₦8,500, an increase of over 120% in a year.

Without cold storage trucks, the extreme heat during transit from northern farms to southern markets like Lagos leads to substantial post-harvest losses. The combination of reduced supply and consistently high demand—driven by Nigeria’s reliance on onions for stews, soups, and jollof rice—has contributed to surging prices.

Meat supply faces even greater structural hurdles. In 2023, Nigeria produced 1.551 million metric tons of meat, which came from beef, poultry, and mutton and goat meat, yet poor transportation networks and inadequate cold storage infrastructure significantly reduce the volume that reaches consumers—and consequently, higher prices.

There are also broader economic factors worsening the crisis with inflation driven by inadequate local production and a volatile foreign exchange market.

“Foreign exchange has spiked from around ₦700 per dollar just 18 months ago to approximately ₦1500 today,” Abia said. “ This, combined with high fuel prices and the costs incurred from multiple road checkpoints, which can add up to ₦150,000 or more, transmits directly to the final food prices.”

While inflation shows signs of slowing, supply chain disruptions could keep food prices higher, leaving policymakers wary of sustained relief.