Orda Pulse 2024
Welcome to Orda Pulse, your annual guide to the latest trends in Africa’s restaurant industry. This year, we explore Lagos’ evolving food scene, highlighting popular dishes, changing tastes, and growth patterns.
Powered by Orda’s cutting-edge restaurant management system, we provide exclusive real-time data and analysis. Whether you’re a restaurateur, food lover, or industry analyst, Orda Pulse remains your essential guide to the trends shaping the African food economy in 2024.
If you’ve reviewed our 2023 report, please note that we’ve updated how we report our metrics. Last year, we analysed data from the start of our launch up to October 2023. Moving forward, we’ll be providing annual snapshots. The data below reflects metrics captured between January 2024 and September 2024.
Data Note: The information in the charts below is from January – September 2024, sourced from various restaurant types, including high-end establishments and local bukkas, across Lagos’s 20 local government areas in Nigeria. To enhance clarity, some data has been compiled and refined for better insight.
Most Popular Menu Items
Beef has climbed to the top spot, overtaking Jollof Rice, which now ranks second. Water remains a staple in third place. Notably, Amala has entered the top five, pushing out items like Goat Meat and Turkey from last year’s list. The rise of more traditional meals like Amala and Beans indicates a shift in customer preferences.
Note: There may be a margin of error as our analysis relies on how vendors label their menu items.
Most Popular Drink Brands
Coca-Cola retains its top spot as the most popular drink brand, followed by Fanta, which overtakes Trophy from last year. Malt beverages also make a strong showing, highlighting a continued preference for soft drinks among customers.
Note: There may be a margin of error as our analysis relies on how vendors label their menu items. We didn’t count generic names like “Coke”, “Yoghurt”, or “Water”. The popularity of specific brands is more pronounced in the beverage category due to consumer preferences for particular brands, as opposed to staple foods like rice, where brand preferences are less distinct or a choice is not given to the consumer.
Food Groups
In Nigeria, the food ordering trends on Orda reveal a strong preference for proteins and grains, with the majority of orders for proteins and grains and cereals, highlighting the prominence of meat and staple foods in the local diet. Beverages and vegetables also show significant popularity. In contrast, there’s a notably lower demand for legumes, nuts, sweets, and fruits, indicating either occasional consumption or different purchasing habits for these items.
Restaurant Peak Times
The data reveals that, 60.7% of total orders are placed between 11 AM and 5 PM, with the lunchtime peak occurring at 1 PM. This time frame represents the busiest period for restaurants, driven largely by delivery and pick-up orders. Evening orders between 6 PM and 8 PM account for 18.6%, maintaining moderate activity before tapering off. Late-night and early-morning orders, spanning from 9 PM to 6 AM, contribute a minimal 3.7%, highlighting clear off-peak hours where demand is significantly lower. This distribution emphasises the need to prioritise resources during midday and early evening to maximise operational efficiency and revenue.
Payment Methods
Digital transactions remain the dominant payment method in Nigeria in 2024, now accounting for 73.1% of all payments, up from 65% in 2023. Cash payments, while still significant, have declined to 26.9%, reflecting a continued shift towards the convenience and security of digital options. This trend reinforces the increasing reliance on digital methods in the ordering process.
Order Fulfillment
In 2024, pick-up emerged as the most popular fulfilment method, accounting for 56.08% of all orders. Delivery followed with 39.38%, indicating a strong demand for off-premises dining. Dine-in, on the other hand, saw a significant decline, making up just 4.54% of total orders. This shift highlights a growing preference for convenience, with customers increasingly opting for pick-up and delivery options over dining at the restaurant.
Average price of a meal
Despite ongoing economic challenges, including inflation and currency fluctuations, the average price of a meal for restaurants using Orda in 2024 stands at ₦7,221. This represents a significant increase of 53.5% compared to the 2023 average of ₦4,703. The sharp rise reflects the growing impact of economic pressures on meal prices, highlighting the challenges restaurants face in maintaining affordability while covering increasing operational costs.
Important Note: This average includes a wide range of restaurant types (e.g high-end restaurants, bukkas etc) across all 20 LGA in Lagos.