Nigeria is one of the top performers under the VACI, receiving a good performance rating (“B”), on par with Kenya and Sweden. Although the country has very low production and consumption of animal products, its animal protection legislative framework is inadequate.
Nigeria slaughters around 1.3 land-based animals per person per year, compared with the global average of 10.1. Despite its large herd size, Nigeria is a major importer of animal products. It has the third lowest dependence on farmed animals amongst the countries surveyed, with around 1.5 farmed animals per person, versus a global average of 4.1. Farm production is mostly small-scale and extensive, although intensive factory farming methods are emerging – particularly with chickens and other farmed birds.
The Nigerian diet contains the lowest proportion of animal products amongst the countries surveyed, with around 8% of the average person’s diet made up of land-based animal protein, compared with a global average of 35.2%. Each person consumes around 4.5g of land-based animal protein per day, versus a global average of 27.2g.
Nigeria is rated as a poor performer (“E”) under the Animal Protection Index (API), and its farmed animal protection legislation achieved the worst performance rating (“G”) under the same index. The country lacks specific welfare requirements for the rearing and slaughter of farmed animals, and has failed to ban farrowing crates and sow stalls within pig farming. Learn more about the quality of Nigeria’s legislative protections on the API here.