The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) says Nigeria has developed a food systems dashboard with 285 indicators to track national food security.
Miracle Owolawi, a policy and advocacy associate at GAIN, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the Sahel Changemakers Conference 2026.
Owolawi said the platform monitors nutrition and development priorities across the country. It provides national- and state-level data to help policymakers identify gaps, track progress and make evidence-based decisions on food systems transformation.
The dashboard provides disaggregated information for Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), he said. It draws data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), agricultural performance surveys and the National Living Standards Survey.
Its indicators provide historical trends dating back to 2018, with updates through 2025, enabling users to assess food systems performance over time, he added.
Owolawi said the dashboard describes current conditions, diagnoses underlying problems and identifies policy actions to address gaps. It can also help policymakers understand how interventions affect production, food availability, affordability, nutrition and environmental sustainability.
Businesses can use the platform to identify supply and demand gaps, while researchers can access metadata for secondary analysis and further study, he said.
He added that Nigeria was working to integrate food systems and climate data to provide a comprehensive picture of transformation priorities.
Joyce Akpata, GAIN’s head of policy and advocacy, said sustainable management of the dashboard requires government ownership, funding and institutional coordination.
The agriculture ministry has budgeted for the dashboard for three years, she said, but GAIN is still addressing internal capacity gaps, public-sector bureaucracy and overlapping mandates.
Akpata said GAIN was working with the NBS and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning to establish a management framework. A stakeholder advisory group and technical team had also been formed to build capacity ahead of the dashboard’s eventual transfer to the government.
Regular data updates, technical expertise and the release of funding were essential, she said, warning that an outdated dashboard would lose its usefulness.
Dr James Adamu, technical assistant to the director-general of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), called for an integrated data-sharing framework.
Adamu said the framework would enable government agencies to share information seamlessly through key performance indicators (KPIs), without repeated requests.
He said NiMet had developed an online mapping platform that provides location-specific climate information and helps assess crop suitability across the country.
Farmers can assess the suitability of crops, including maize, using factors such as temperature and crop water requirements, he said. The platform also provides data on climate, health, water resources and disaster risks, including malaria, meningitis and dry spells.
Mr Uko Ekott, country representative of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), called for greater community involvement in policy design.
Communities should contribute local evidence and traditional knowledge rather than serve merely as recipients of policies, he said.
Citing a project in Plateau State where communities used traditional food-storage methods, Ekott urged agencies to build on existing practices. Community development groups, market associations and farmers’ organisations could also gather local evidence to inform policy decisions, he added.
Ekott warned that overlapping mandates among government ministries created conflicts and undermined development investments.
