Nigeria’s Inflation Rises To 15.69% In April — NBS

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose slightly to 15.69 per cent in April 2026, from 15.38 per cent recorded in March 2026, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The bureau, however, said the latest figure represented a sharp decline when compared to the 26.82 per cent recorded in April 2025.
The report followed the completion of the rebasing of the Consumer Price Index, which is now benchmarked to a new base year of 2024 and a weight reference period of 2023.
According to the statistics agency, the CPI rose to 138.3 points in April 2026, reflecting a 2.9-point increase from the preceding month.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation slowed to 2.13 per cent in April, compared to 4.18 per cent recorded in March, indicating a moderation in the pace of price increases.
The National Bureau of Statistics attributed the inflationary trend largely to increases in the prices of food, transport, and hospitality-related services.
It said the major contributors to headline inflation were Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, which accounted for 6.40 percentage points, Restaurants and Accommodation Services at 3.56 percentage points, and Transport at 1.70 percentage points.
The least contributors were Recreation, Sport and Culture, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics, as well as Insurance and Financial Services.
Food inflation stood at 16.06 per cent on a year-on-year basis in April 2026, lower than the 24.68 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation eased to 3.63 per cent from 4.17 per cent in March.
The bureau linked the moderation to changes in the average prices of staple food items including millet, yam flour, fresh ginger, beef, garri, fresh pepper, beans, tomatoes, cassava tuber, wheat grain, soybeans, guinea corn, plantain, carrots, and Irish potatoes.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural produce and energy prices, rose to 15.86 per cent year-on-year in April 2026.
However, on a monthly basis, core inflation slowed significantly to 1.03 per cent, from 4.03 per cent recorded in March.
The report also introduced newly rebased inflation sub-indices, showing monthly inflation rates of 6.0 per cent for farm produce, 8.0 per cent for energy, 2.1 per cent for services, 3.2 per cent for goods, and 4.4 per cent for imported food.
On a year-on-year basis, farm produce inflation stood at 19.8 per cent, services at 16.7 per cent, goods at 15.7 per cent, imported food at 10.5 per cent, while energy inflation was 4.6 per cent.
Urban inflation was recorded at 15.40 per cent year-on-year in April, while rural inflation stood higher at 16.36 per cent.
Month-on-month, urban inflation slowed to 1.86 per cent from 3.16 per cent in March, while rural inflation moderated sharply to 2.80 per cent from 6.73 per cent.
At the state level, Sokoto recorded the highest year-on-year headline inflation rate at 25.74 per cent, followed by Bauchi at 22.52 per cent and Zamfara at 22.03 per cent.
Edo recorded the slowest rise in headline inflation at 5.91 per cent, followed by Borno at 6.72 per cent and Jigawa at 7.04 per cent.
On a month-on-month basis, Niger recorded the highest increase in headline inflation at 5.66 per cent, followed by Kano at 4.50 per cent and Plateau at 4.39 per cent.
Bayelsa, Enugu, and Rivers recorded the slowest monthly increases.
In terms of food inflation, Enugu posted the highest year-on-year food inflation rate at 32.67 per cent, followed by Kwara at 30.77 per cent and Adamawa at 30.14 per cent.
Borno recorded the slowest increase in food inflation at 1.67 per cent, while Jigawa and Taraba posted 6.17 per cent and 7.19 per cent respectively.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was highest in Niger at 8.53 per cent, followed by Bauchi at 6.78 per cent and Kogi at 6.72 per cent.
Kebbi, Katsina, and Bayelsa recorded the slowest monthly food inflation rates during the period.