Nigeria's dog owners hit with surging pet food prices amid cost-of-living crisis

TimesLIVE

3 days ago

Nigeria's two-year cost-of-living crisis, which has seen the price of grocery staples such as rice rise over 100% since 2023, has reached the relatively affluent class of dog owners, who are struggling to feed their pets because of soaring food costs.
Keeping animals as pets is a recent trend in Nigerian society, where traditionally people were more likely to live with chicken or goats reared for food.
Over the past two decades, there was a rise in the number of households in urban areas keeping pet dogs, often for security in a country plagued by violent crime, but also for companionship. No precise data are available on dog ownership, but a 2023 survey by research agency TGM Statbox indicated around 42% of Nigerians own pets.
However, in a sign of economic hard times hitting across society, that is an increasingly expensive luxury.
One dog owner, Peter Anthony, a student who lives with his parents in the southwestern city of Ibadan, said feeding his German Shepherd, Flora, was never previously a concern for the family.
"Before the high cost of living saga, feeding her was easy," he said while waiting for Flora at a pet hospital where she had been treated for an ear condition.
"But now, by the time you pick money from your pocket, you'd know something has left you."