Food prices soar while poverty worsens in Nigeria
Desmond Okorie is doing anything he can to make ends meet.
In Nigeria's financial capital Lagos, he was once employed at a furniture store for over a decade.
But at the start of the global health crisis, he was laid off.
Now the father of five picks up used cans for recycling, and also works as a bricklayer, to feed his family.
"In a day, we can gather up to 30 kilos so when we gather it, we give it to them then they now measure it and give us the money."
Rising prices of food staples in Africa's largest economy has only added to the strain.
Prices of eggs, onions and palm oil have risen by at least 30%.
While Okorie says his weekly income is about twenty dollars, his family's weekly expenditure can sometimes be almost double that.
"The way we are living is very, very hard. Honestly, it is kind of from hand to mouth."
Millions of Nigerians like Okorie, once on solid financial footing, now rely on donated food to feed their families.
Some go an entire day without eating.
And the crisis in Africa's most populous nation is far from over.
Inflation in the country is nearing an all-time high, largely due to soaring food prices.
Rising unemployment and political insecurity in farming regions in the north only add to that.
It's threatening to plunge more of the nation's formerly middle-class into financial despair.
The World Bank estimates that the drastic price changes in 2020 pushed 7 million more Nigerians into poverty, an increase of nearly 10%.
