Nearly nine in 10 households in Katsina State consume only one to three varieties of food items daily, while six in 10 recent births occurred at home, according to a new government household survey that shows wide gaps by wealth and place of residence.
The 2025 Katsina State General Household Survey also puts average self-reported monthly household income at ₦66,420 and shows that poorer and rural women recorded substantially lower rates of antenatal care and facility delivery than women from wealthier households.
The findings are contained in the state’s General Household Survey 2025: Data for Development, which was publicly unveiled alongside new development, social protection, and nutrition policy documents at the Government House in Katsina on 20 August.
The survey covered all 34 local government areas and used a two-stage stratified sampling method. Of 10,426 households selected, 10,269 were interviewed, according to the report.
The government said the survey was intended to provide a baseline for planning, budgeting and targeting public interventions across the state.
Beyond that policy objective, however, the findings present a picture of households reporting limited food variety and substantial inequalities in income and access to maternal healthcare.
Limited food variety
The survey found that 87.8 per cent of households consumed between one and three varieties of food items daily.
Another 10.9 per cent consumed between four and six varieties, while only 0.9 per cent reported seven to nine and 0.4 per cent consumed 10 or more.
The figures also varied substantially across wealth quintiles.
Among households in the poorest wealth quintile, 96.8 per cent consumed only one to three varieties of food items daily. The figure was 68.4 per cent even among households classified in the richest quintile.
The report’s food-security table also shows that 18.1 per cent of households said they always experienced food shortages, 16.1 per cent said they often did, 60.1 per cent reported experiencing shortages sometimes, while 5.9 per cent said they rarely did.
Only 13 per cent said they ate meals containing items such as meat, vegetables, beans, eggs or dairy products daily. Another 48.6 per cent reported doing so several times a week.
The findings come as the state government says it is increasing spending on nutrition.
In a speech delivered on his behalf by Deputy Governor Faruk Jobe, Governor Dikko Radda said the state had invested more than ₦1.7 billion in nutrition interventions and provided another ₦500 million as counterpart funding for programmes supported by development partners.
The speech did not provide a breakdown of the ₦1.7 billion expenditure or specify the period covered by the figure.
Average monthly household income
The survey puts average monthly household income at ₦66,420.
The Katsina State Bureau of Statistics subsequently clarified to PREMIUM TIMES that the income figures were self-reported by respondents and represented nominal monthly household income at the time of the survey, without adjustment for inflation.
The report puts the average monthly income at ₦74,392 for urban households and ₦65,222 for rural households.
The gap was wider across wealth quintiles.
Households in the poorest quintile reported an average monthly income of ₦34,210, compared with ₦124,905 among households in the richest quintile.
Agriculture remained the primary source of income for 46.9 per cent of households, followed by business at 29 per cent and salaries or wages at 11.2 per cent.
Six in 10 recent births occurred at home
The gaps are also reflected in access to maternal healthcare.
Among women who had a live birth in the two years preceding the survey, 60.8 per cent delivered at home, while 38.3 per cent delivered in a health facility.
The rural-urban gap was substantial.
About 67.6 per cent of rural women delivered at home, compared with 42.8 per cent of urban women.
Facility delivery also varied sharply across wealth quintiles.
Only 23 per cent of women in the poorest wealth quintile delivered in a health facility, compared with 72.4 per cent among women in the richest quintile.
Education showed a similar pattern.
Facility delivery was 26.8 per cent among women with no education, 42.4 per cent among those with primary education and 65.1 per cent among women with secondary education or higher.
Gaps begin before delivery
The inequalities were already visible during pregnancy.
The survey found that 24.2 per cent of women with a recent live birth had not attended antenatal care, while 46.3 per cent had between one and three visits.
Another 27 per cent had at least four visits, including 4.3 per cent who had eight or more.
The proportion receiving no antenatal care was 26.1 per cent among rural women, compared with 16.7 per cent among urban women.
The report also assessed three services commonly provided during antenatal care: blood pressure measurement, urine testing, and blood testing.
Although 72.7 per cent had their blood pressure measured, only 46.6 per cent had a urine sample taken, and 41.4 per cent had a blood sample taken.
Only 36.2 per cent received all three services.
A strong wealth gradient was also evident. Among women in the poorest quintile, 21.2 per cent received all three services, compared with 64.2 per cent among those in the richest group.
The corresponding rate was 27.9 per cent among rural women and 58.6 per cent among urban women.
The findings show that the gaps extend beyond whether women access antenatal care to the services they receive during such visits.
Early childbearing follows the wealth, education divide
The survey found that among women aged 15 to 19, 14.8 per cent had already had a live birth, while 6.9 per cent were pregnant with their first child.
Combined, 21.7 per cent had either given birth or were pregnant with a first child.
The combined figure varied sharply by wealth.
Among those in the poorest wealth quintile, 33.2 per cent had either had a live birth or were pregnant with their first child, compared with 7.8 per cent among those in the richest quintile.
Education showed a similar divide. The combined figure was 32 per cent among those with no education, 22.3 per cent among those with primary education and 8.5 per cent among those with secondary education or higher.
Social assistance
The report also found that 21.6 per cent of households had ever benefited from some form of social assistance.
The measure covers assistance from various sources and does not refer solely to state government programmes.
Government was reported as the source of 60.8 per cent of the assistance received, followed by community sources at 17.8 per cent, individuals at 12.4 per cent and non-governmental organisations at 6.6 per cent.
In the same speech, Mr Radda said more than 50,555 people had benefited from the state’s Zakat programme and that more than ₦1.9 billion had been mobilised to support vulnerable households and livelihoods.
He said Katsina was combining traditional Islamic welfare mechanisms, including Zakat and Waqf, with conventional social protection programmes.
The newly launched State Social Protection Policy is intended to coordinate interventions for poor households, women, children, older persons, people with disabilities, internally displaced persons and other vulnerable groups.
Bureau clarifies errors, denominators
PREMIUM TIMES sought clarification from the Katsina State Bureau of Statistics after identifying inconsistencies in some tables in the published report.
The Bureau confirmed that a figure printed as 350.0 per cent in Table 9.2 was a typographical or formatting error and should read 35.0 per cent. It also said the rural figure for households that had ever benefited from social assistance in Table 10.1 should be 19.9 per cent, not the 28.1 per cent printed in the report.
It further clarified that the 10,426 households shown in Tables 10.2 to 10.4 represented the overall survey reference count, not the denominator for the beneficiary-specific analyses. The Bureau subsequently supplied 2,254 as the statewide beneficiary denominator, while 1,589 beneficiary responses formed the base for a follow-up question on the extent to which assistance had improved their livelihoods.
The Bureau also said the categories “rich”, “moderately rich”, “poor” and “extremely poor” used in Table 10.4 reflected respondents’ self-assessment rather than an official poverty line, household income, expenditure or the survey’s wealth index.
Statistician-General Saifullahi Ibrahim told PREMIUM TIMES that the Bureau would release a corrected version of the report online and was checking it for further errors.
Government says policies must translate into results
In the speech, Mr Radda said the household survey and the other policy documents would be used to guide budgeting, programme design and the allocation of public resources.
He also said ministries, departments and agencies would be expected to use statistical evidence in preparing policies, budgets and monitoring frameworks.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Malik Anas, also acknowledged that producing policy documents would not, by itself, improve people’s welfare.
He said their success would ultimately depend on whether their priorities were reflected in budgets, programmes and measurableeeeeee improvements in people’s lives.
The survey is intended to provide a baseline against which those commitments can be tested, particularly for poorer and rural households that recorded weaker outcomes across several indicators.
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