Urban Food Insecurity, Policy Gaps, and the Role of Informal Food Systems in Kano Metropolis, North West Nigeria

This study analyses urban food insecurity, formal policy gaps, and the compensatory role of informal food systems in Kano Metropolis, North West Nigeria. Rapid urbanisation, economic shocks, and the removal of fuel subsidies have intensified food affordability and access challenges for low-income urban households in Kano, yet the policy response remains largely rural-focused, underestimating the urban food security challenge. Drawing on the sustainable livelihoods framework and urban food systems theory, the study is anchored in current food policy literature from 2020 to 2024. A mixed-methods research design is employed. Structured household food security questionnaires based on the Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Insecurity Experience Scale are administered to 310 randomly sampled low-income urban households across five Kano metropolitan wards. Dietary diversity scores and food expenditure share data are supplemented by focused discussions with market traders, food vendors, and city planning officials. Ordinal logistic regression is applied to examine determinants of food insecurity severity, while qualitative findings capture informal system dynamics. The study expects to find that informal food vendors, market credit relationships, and rotating savings groups constitute the primary food security coping infrastructure for poor urban households, despite their exclusion from formal food policy frameworks. Gender and household headship are expected to significantly predict food insecurity status. Findings will generate recommendations for integrating urban informal food system actors into Kano's food security governance and social protection planning. Keywords: urban food insecurity, informal food systems, Kano Metropolis, food policy, Nigeria