Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose slightly to 15.69 per cent in April 2026, from 15.38 per cent recorded in March 2026, as increases in food, transport, hospitality, and healthcare costs pushed up consumer prices nationwide.
The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index report released on Friday.
The report read, “In April 2026, the Headline inflation rate rose to 15.69 per cent, up from 15.38 per cent in March 2026 and stood at 26.82 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (April 2025). Looking at the movement, the April 2026 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.31 per cent compared to the March 2026 Headline inflation rate.”
The bureau stated that the Consumer Price Index increased to 138.3 in April 2026, representing a 2.9-point rise from the 135.4 recorded in March.
Despite the increase in annual inflation, the report showed that the pace of monthly price growth slowed in April. On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation stood at 2.13 per cent, lower than the 4.18 per cent recorded in March.
The NBS explained, “This means that in April 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in March 2026.”
Food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the largest contributor to headline inflation, accounting for 6.40 percentage points of the overall rate.
Restaurants and accommodation services contributed 3.56 percentage points, while transport accounted for 1.70 percentage points.
Health contributed 1.21 percentage points, followed by housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 0.77 percentage points.
Other contributors included personal care and miscellaneous goods and services at 0.64 percentage points, education services at 0.49 percentage points, clothing and footwear at 0.32 percentage points, and information and communication at 0.28 percentage points.
The report further showed that the percentage change in the average CPI for the 12 months ending April 2026 was 19.16 per cent, slightly lower than the 19.33 per cent recorded in April 2025.
On urban inflation, the bureau said the year-on-year rate stood at 15.40 per cent in April 2026, while the month-on-month rate slowed to 1.86 per cent from 3.16 per cent in March.
For rural inflation, the NBS said the year-on-year rate was higher at 16.36 per cent, while the month-on-month rate eased to 2.80 per cent from 6.73 per cent in March.
Food inflation also increased on a yearly basis.
The report stated that food inflation stood at 16.06 per cent in April 2026, compared to 24.68 per cent in April 2025. On a monthly basis, however, food inflation slowed to 3.63 per cent from 4.17 per cent in March.
The bureau attributed the rise in food prices to increases in the prices of staple items including millet, yam flour, fresh ginger, beef, garri, yam tubers, fresh pepper, crayfish, cassava tubers, beans, Irish potatoes, tomatoes, wheat grain, soybeans, guinea corn, plantain, and carrots.
The report added, “The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending April 2026, relative to the previous twelve-month average, was 17.55 per cent, which was 17.05 percentage points lower than the average annual rate of change recorded in April 2025 (34.60 per cent).”
Core inflation, which excludes volatile agricultural produce and energy prices, stood at 15.86 per cent year-on-year in April 2026, lower than the 26.05 per cent recorded in April 2025. On a monthly basis, core inflation slowed sharply to 1.03 per cent from 4.03 per cent in March.
The report also showed that farm produce inflation rose by 19.8 per cent year-on-year and six per cent month-on-month, while energy inflation recorded 4.6 per cent annual growth and eight per cent monthly growth.
Services inflation stood at 16.7 per cent year-on-year and 2.1 per cent month-on-month, while goods inflation was 15.7 per cent annually and 3.2 per cent monthly. Imported food inflation stood at 10.5 per cent year-on-year and 4.4 per cent month-on-month.
At the state level, Sokoto recorded the highest year-on-year all-items 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 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 rise in all-items inflation at 5.66 per cent, followed by Kano at 4.50 per cent and Plateau at 4.39 per cent. Bayelsa recorded the slowest increase at 0.64 per cent, while Enugu and Rivers posted 0.98 per cent and 1.02 per cent respectively.
For food inflation, Enugu recorded the highest year-on-year increase at 32.67 per cent, followed by Kwara at 30.77 per cent and Adamawa at 30.14 per cent. Borno recorded the slowest food inflation at 1.67 per cent, followed by Jigawa at 6.17 per cent and Taraba at 7.19 per cent.
The NBS noted that interstate comparisons should be interpreted cautiously because consumption patterns and expenditure weights differ across states.
The report added that the CPI measures changes in the prices of goods and services commonly purchased by consumers using expenditure weights derived from household spending patterns across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
In its Inflation Forecast report for April 2026, the Financial Market Dealers Association projected that Nigeria’s headline inflation would rise to 16.42 per cent year-on-year in April 2026, as sustained pressure from food prices, higher energy costs and elevated global commodity prices continue to shape the domestic price environment.
However, the latest data released by the NBS showed that headline inflation settled lower than projected, although food prices and energy costs remained key inflation drivers.
