By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Latest reports from the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) indicates that Nigeria’s inflation rate for April 2026 reached 15.69% year-on-year, confirming a continued upward pressure from the 15.38% recorded in March.
According to Adeyemi Adeniran, Nigeria’s Statistician General said the report showed that the slight increase follows a rise in food and energy costs in March marking a halt to earlier disinflationary trends.
The NBS said following the completion of the recent rebasing exercise, the current report is centred on a new CPI base year of 2024 and a weight reference period of 2023, adding that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased to 138.3 in April 2026, and reflects a 2.9-point increase from the preceding month.
According to the report, the month-on-month headline inflation rate in April 2026 was 2.13%, which was 2.05% lower than the rate recorded in March 2026 (4.18%).
‘At the divisional level, the three major contributors to the headline inflation were Food and non-alcoholic Beverages: 6.40%, Restaurants & Accommodation Services: 3.56%, and Transport: 1.70%; while the least contributors were Recreation, Sport, and Culture: 0.01%, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco, and Narcotics: 0.01%, and Insurance and Financial Services: 0.03%’.
The Food inflation rate in April 2026 was 16.06% on a year-on-year basis, lower than 24.68% recorded in April 2025. Also, on a month-on-month basis, the Food Inflation rate in April 2026 was 3.63%, down by 0.54% points from March 2026 (4.17%). This can be attributed to the rate of change in the average prices of Millet Whole grain, Yam Flour, Ginger (Fresh), Beef, Garri, Yam Tuber, Pepper (Fresh), Cray Fish, Cassava Tuber, Beans, Irish Potatoes, Tomatoes (Fresh), Wheat Grain (Sold loose), Soy Beans, Guinea Corn, Plantain, Carrots (Fresh), among others.
Core Inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 15.86% in April 2026 on a year-on-year basis. On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 1.03% in April 2026, down by 3.0% compared to March 2026 (4.03%).
The inflation rate of the sub-indices for April 2026 shows that the monthly change recorded were Farm Produce (6.0%), Energy (8.0%), Services (2.1%), Goods (3.2%) and Imported Food (4.4%). Meanwhile, the inflation rate on a year-on-year basis recorded were as follows; Farm Produce (19.8%), Energy (4.6%), Services (16.7%), Goods (15.7%) and Imported Food (10.5%).
On a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate in April 2026 was 15.40%. On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.86% in April 2026, down by 1.3% compared to March 2026 (3.16%).
The rural inflation rate in April 2026 was 16.36% on a year-on-year basis. On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate in April 2026 was 2.80%, down by 3.93% compared to March 2026 (6.73%).
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In analysing price movements under this section, it should be noted that CPI is weighted by consumption expenditure patterns that differ across States and locations. Accordingly, the weight assigned to a particular Food or Non-Food item may differ from State to State making interstate comparisons of consumption basket inadvisable and potentially misleading
