Hungry for health: How Nigeria’s food environment is failing its children

On the streets of many Nigerian cities, the pattern is unmistakable. Children clutch brightly coloured sachet drinks on their way to school.

Small kiosks overflow with fried snacks, sugary beverages, and highly processed foods sold for a few naira. Meanwhile, fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious options are often scarce, more expensive, or completely absent from everyday food environments.

This is the outcome of a food system that consistently makes unhealthy options affordable and aggressively marketed while failing to ensure that nutritious foods are available and affordable. The consequences of these practices are becoming impossible to ignore. Globally, one in ten children now lives with obesity, and low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria are experiencing some of the fastest increases.

Understanding the food environment

A food environment refers to the physical, economic, political, and social factors that shape what people eat. For children and adolescents, these environments are especially influential.

They determine what foods are sold near schools, what is advertised on television and social media, and what families can afford with limited incomes.

In Nigeria, food environments increasingly favour ultra-processed foods (UPFs). These products are typically high in sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, and non-nutritive additives. They are low in essential nutrients and designed for convenience, long shelf life, and maximum profit rather than nourishment. UPFs are widely available in urban and peri-urban areas of Nigeria and are often sold in small portions that appear affordable but encourage overconsumption.

Ultra-processed foods and aggressive marketing to children

Ultra-processed foods and sugary beverages dominate the diets of many Nigerian children by design. These products are heavily marketed using cartoons, celebrities, and social media influencers that appeal directly to young audiences. Some are even advertised with branding across schools in many cities in Nigeria. Advertising regulations aimed at protecting children remain weak or poorly enforced in the country, allowing unhealthy food marketing to flourish across television, digital platforms, and outdoor spaces.

Children are particularly vulnerable to these tactics. Evidence consistently shows that marketing influences children’s food preferences, purchase requests, and consumption patterns. When unhealthy foods are relentlessly promoted, and healthy alternatives are barely visible, the outcome is predictable: children develop unhealthy eating habits that often persist into adulthood, contributing to cravings and dietary patterns that undermine long-term health.

Rising childhood malnutrition in Nigeria

Nigeria has long battled undernutrition, but the country now faces a growing triple burden of malnutrition, alongside stunting and micronutrient deficiencies among children and adults. Overweight and obesity are rising among adolescents, particularly in urban areas.

National surveys and academic studies show an increasing prevalence of childhood overweightness and obesity. According to data, from 2013 to 2023, malnutrition was the number one risk factor driving the most deaths and disability combined in Nigeria. These malnutrition trends increase the risk of diet-related noncommunicable diseases later in life, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension, conditions already straining Nigeria’s health system.

Why healthy foods are out of reach

The challenge is not a lack of appreciation for nutritious food among Nigerians; it is a system that consistently makes healthy options difficult to access.

Fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, and animal-source foods often cost more than ultra-processed alternatives, particularly in low-income neighbourhoods. Weak cold-chain infrastructure, high post-harvest losses, and fragmented supply chains drive up prices and reduce availability. In contrast, sugary drinks and processed snacks benefit from economies of scale, efficient distribution networks, and minimal spoilage risk, given their shelf stability compared to fresh food.

Schools, where children consume a significant portion of their daily food, are another critical gap. Many school environments lack nutrition standards, allowing vendors to sell sugary drinks and fried snacks with little oversight.

The cost of inaction

Failing to address unhealthy food environments comes at a high cost. In the short term, children experience poor diet quality, excess weight gain, and reduced well-being. Over time, these risks translate into higher rates of noncommunicable diseases, lower productivity, and rising health-care expenditure.

The economic impact of overweight and obesity in Nigeria was USD 2.37 billion in 2019. It is projected that overweight and obesity will cost Nigeria’s economy USD 4.97 billion in 2030. For Nigeria, continuous inaction threatens long-term economic growth. A generation burdened by preventable diet-related diseases undermines investments in education, workforce development, and poverty reduction. The burden also falls disproportionately on low-income households, deepening health and social inequalities.

What needs to change

Transforming Nigeria’s food environment requires coordinated action across policy, markets, and communities.

First, policy measures matter. Evidence from multiple countries shows that fiscal policies such as taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages can reduce consumption while generating revenue for health and nutrition programmes.

Restrictions on marketing unhealthy foods to children, front-of-pack labelling, and nutrition standards for schools are proven tools that remain underused in Nigeria.

Second, healthier foods must be made more affordable and accessible, and this requires coordinated action across multiple stakeholders. Governments play a central role by setting policies, investing in local food systems, and improving storage and transport infrastructure.

At the same time, development partners and investors can support smallholder farmers and strengthen value chains, while businesses are responsible for producing and distributing nutritious foods at scale. Progress depends on these actors working together through targeted public and private investment, supportive regulation, and private‑sector innovation to ensure that healthy diets become both accessible and affordable for all.

Third, the private sector has a critical role to play in creating a healthier food environment for all Nigerians. Reformulation, responsible marketing, and investment in nutritious product lines can shift what is available on the shelves.

Aligning financial incentives with positive nutrition outcomes is essential to improve food and nutrition security in Nigeria.

Re-imagining food environments for Nigeria’s children

Nigeria’s children are growing up in environments that shape their diets long before they can make informed choices. Changing this reality is not about removing personal responsibility; it is about creating conditions where the healthy choice is the easy choice.

Healthier food environments are achievable. They require strong political will, smart regulation, and investment strategies that prioritise nutrition as a foundation of human capital. Protecting children from unhealthy food systems is a public health imperative and an investment in Nigeria’s future.

If the country is committed to safeguarding the next generation, transforming food environments must move from rhetoric to action. Every child deserves access to food that nourishes, not food that undermines their health from the very start.

Hammed Jimoh is a Partnerships Manager at the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNi).