Nutrition Transition and the Political Economy of the Nigerian Food Industry: Implications for Non-Communicable Disease Policy

The political economy of the Nigerian food industry represents a critically underanalysed driver of nutrition transition and non-communicable disease risk, with corporate food actors shaping regulatory environments, consumer behaviour, and national nutrition policy through mechanisms that nutrition science has only recently begun to document. This study applies a critical political economy of nutrition framework to examine how the Nigerian food industry influences dietary patterns and non-communicable disease policy through lobbying, marketing, corporate social responsibility, and interference in evidence-based policymaking. A multi-method critical policy analysis design was employed. Documentary analysis of Nigerian food regulatory history, advertising standards, industry lobbying submissions to the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC, and corporate sustainability reports from the fifteen largest food and beverage companies operating in Nigeria was conducted using Foucauldian discourse analysis and narrative policy analysis. Financial analysis of food industry expenditure on marketing, government engagement, and public health sponsorships was conducted using publicly available and freedom of information-obtained financial data. Forty key informant interviews were conducted with former and current government officials, independent nutrition scientists, civil society nutrition advocates, and industry representatives to examine corporate influence mechanisms from multiple perspectives. A comparative policy process analysis examined Nigeria alongside South Africa and Brazil as comparator cases on food industry-nutrition policy relationships. Findings will produce an original political economy of the Nigerian food system, generating theoretical and empirical contributions that reposition the food industry as an active agent in Nigeria's nutrition transition and non-communicable disease burden. Keywords: political economy, food industry, nutrition transition, non-communicable disease policy, Nigeria.