Why Food Is Still Expensive in Lagos — And What It Will Take to Fix It

Food prices in Nigeria didn't just go up overnight. And they won't come down overnight either. But there's a real conversation happening about what's actually causing the problem and what fixing it looks like.

Our CEO, Ola Oyetade, joined Arise TV's Global Business Report during the Eid al-Adha period to talk about the state of food in Nigeria — prices, purchasing power, young people entering agriculture, and whether Nigeria can ever truly feed itself.

Here's the conversation.

On why food is still expensive

It's not just inflation. According to Ola, the prices went up, and most people's income didn't follow at the same pace. Nigeria's inflation rate is still sitting around 30%, which means even where prices have started to stabilize, a lot of households are still catching up.

The bigger issue though? Infrastructure. Moving food from where it's grown to where people eat it is expensive. Rural road networks are poor. Cold chain storage barely exists outside major cities. The cost of transporting a single bag of produce from a farming community to a hub can add ₦1,000 per bag before it even reaches Lagos. By the time food gets to your kitchen, logistics alone can account for 30 to 40% of what you're paying.

"Most roads being built in Nigeria are in city centers. But the food is coming from rural areas." — Ola Oyetade, on Arise TV

On electronic payments being rejected at markets

This came up after a reporter flagged that some traders during Eid were refusing mobile transfers. Ola confirmed it's real and not surprising.

More than 80% of farmers in Nigeria are still smallholder, peasant farmers operating in rural communities where digital infrastructure is thin or unreliable. Cash confirms immediately. A transfer can fail, delay, or simply not go through in a village with poor connectivity. Until those changes, cash will remain the default in farming communities — regardless of what's happening in Lagos or Abuja.

On young Nigerians going into agriculture

This was the part of the conversation worth paying attention to.

Ola mentioned he left medical school to build in the agricultural space — and he's not alone. He knows at least 20 people personally who are now actively working in agro commodity supply, fresh produce, and food infrastructure. Not as a side hustle, but as a full business.

The interest is real. The capital requirement is real too — this isn't a space you enter without investment. But the opportunity is there for people willing to approach it seriously.

On whether Nigeria can become food independent

Short answer: for staples, yes. For everything else, not necessary — and not smart.

Nigeria already has a comparative advantage in rice, cassava, maize, and yam. The goal should be to strengthen those categories while improving efficiency in what we export. Complete import removal isn't the answer — even the US and China trade heavily with each other on agricultural commodities.

What matters is being self-sufficient in the things that feed everyday Nigerians, and globally competitive in what we can sell.

The bottom line

The problem with food prices in Nigeria is structural. It needs private businesses doing the work and government fixing the roads, cold storage, and financing conditions that make that work harder than it should be.

At FeedMe, this is exactly what we're building toward. Faster access to fresh produce, sourced properly, delivered to your door. It's one piece of a much bigger puzzle — but it's the piece we can control.

Ready to ease stress and enjoy fresh produce delivered to your doorstep? Order fresh produce at shopfeedme.com