Nigeria's Senate has passed a bill seeking to make it a crime to export large quantities of unprocessed corn in an effort to alleviate hunger in the West African nation, documents seen by Reuters on Friday showed.

Africa's most populous country is grappling with its worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

Economic hardship has worsened since President Bola Tinubu started austerity reforms, including devaluing the country's naira currency and ending a decades-old petrol subsidy, fuelling inflation.

The weak Nigerian currency has spurred informal exports of corn, rice and sorghum to neighbouring countries due to the exchange rate differential with the West African CFA franc.

Corn is a staple in Nigeria that is also used for animal feed, drinks and processed flour.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts a rise in Nigeria's 2024/25 corn exports to 75 000 metric tons from its 2023/24 estimate of 50 000 metric tons.

The Senate bill, which will need the president's assent to become law, will make it illegal to export unprocessed corn from a minimum of 1 metric ton.

Violators would pay the value of the corn in fines or face a one-year prison sentence.

A joint report by Nigeria's government and the United Nations said in November that more than 30-million people are expected to be food insecure next year, a one-third jump from this year.

The USDA estimates that Nigeria consumes about 12-million metric tons of corn a year, importing roughly 100 000 metric tons.