Travel & Tours

Top 10 African cities where it is most expensive to get food

Food is a vital part of our lives and a basic requirement for living. However, the price of food could put a financial strain on a lot of individuals all around the world. The capacity of individuals to afford nourishing and healthful meals can be severely impacted by high food costs in a nation, which can eventually have an adverse effect on their health and well-being. The availability and cost of food, sometimes influence a region's livability. Based on the region, and other factors that affect livability, the more economical food is relative to how nutrient-dense it is, the more desirable said region is. However, there is no ignoring the fact that food is simply more pricey in some regions than others and these expensive prices are influenced by a number of factors, including supply and demand, cost of production, processing, transportation, and the cachet of said neighborhood. 

Because food is the most essential commodity in any economy, considering the amount a region’s residents spend on feeding and living would help guide the decision of living there. Numbeo, one of the world’s most profound data and research platforms, computes data that determine the cities with the highest cost of living, globally. The price of food, particularly the cost of groceries and restaurant meals, is one of the indices used to compile the list.

For its indexes, Numbeo depends on user inputs and manually gathered information from reliable sources (such as grocery websites, taxi business websites, websites of governmental organizations, newspaper articles, other surveys, etc.).

The platform's database is then updated twice a year with personally gathered data from reliable sources. The Numbeo website provides a more thorough explanation of the process.

Below is the list of the top 10 African cities where it is most expensive to get food. The food price index is based on Business Insider’s weighted average of Numbeo’s groceries index and restaurant index. 

RankCitiesCountryFood Price IndexGroceries IndexResturant Index
1.DoualaCameroon51.442.160.7
2.DakarSenegal42.739.146.2
3.Port LouisMauritius37.743.032.4
4.LagosNigeria35.939.532.3
5.Addis AbabaEthiopia33.538.828.2
6.GarboroneBotswana33.230.036.5
7.HarareZimbabwe32.634.830.4
8.AbidjanIvory Coast32.235.828.6
9.JohannesburgSouth Africa30.928.833.0
10AccraGhana29.731.627.8
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