Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased marginally to 15.39 percent in August 2026, down from 15.43 percent recorded in July.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced the movement in its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, noting a 0.04 percent decrease compared to the previous month.
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation stood at 0.71 percent in August, which was 0.86 percent lower than the 1.57 percent recorded in July, indicating that the average price level increased at a slower rate.
The food inflation rate stood at 19.57 percent on a year-on-year basis in August 2026, marking a significant drop from the 25.30 percent recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation fell to 1.02 percent, down by 4.55 percentage points from 5.56 percent in July.
The decline was driven mainly by price moderations across key food staples, including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon (egusi), fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken, and turkey meat.
On a year-on-year basis, food inflation was highest in Adamawa (38.85 percent), Zamfara (37.96 percent), and Bayelsa (36.20 percent).
Conversely, Borno (-4.04 percent), Jigawa (-0.23 percent), and Kebbi (3.47 percent) recorded the slowest year-on-year increases.
On a month-on-month basis, Katsina (9.48 percent), Rivers (8.86 percent), and Osun (8.32 percent) logged the highest food inflation rates, while Taraba (-12.42 percent), Borno (-12.15 percent), and Bauchi (-8.88 percent) recorded the slowest pace of growth
