As soaring cattle prices push up the cost of beef across Nigeria amid deepening poverty, low-income families are increasingly forced to remove meat from their meals. Many can no longer afford not only beef, but also fish, chicken, turkey, and other sources of animal protein. In this report, IDOWU ABDULLAHI examines how shrinking purchasing power is pushing nutritious diets beyond the reach of millions of poor households and worsening the country’s malnutrition crisis
on a sunny afternoon on May 13, 2026, in Isheri, a border town nestled between Lagos and Ogun States, Olaide Alarape stood quietly beside the butchers’ section of the Kara market, mentally calculating how far the cash in her hand could go.
Around her, market traders shouted prices to the attention of intending customers, but Alarape’s attention remained fixed on the displayed meat already surrounded by customers bargaining for smaller portions.
For the 37-year-old vegetable seller, feeding her family a balanced diet has become an exhausting daily struggle shaped by rising food prices, particularly the prices of animal protein, such as cow meat.
Meat, once a regular part of family meals, has gradually disappeared from her cooking pot.
