A significant slowdown in the pace of food price increases helped push Nigeria’s headline inflation rate down marginally to 15.39 per cent in August 2026, according to official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
The Latest Consumer Price Index report shows a 0.04 percentage-point drop from the 15.43 per cent recorded in July 2026, alongside a marked reduction from the 23.14 per cent registered in August 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, consumer price growth moderated sharply to 0.71 per cent from 1.57 per cent in July. The statistical agency noted: “This means that in August 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2026.” Despite the annual rate easing, the overall index measuring household consumption expenditure edged up to 146.3 points from 145.3 points the previous month.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to serve as the dominant driver of annual price growth, contributing 6.16 percentage points to the headline index. This was followed by restaurants and accommodation at 1.99 points, transport at 1.64 points, and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other utility services at 1.30 points.
Annual food inflation cooled to 19.57 per cent compared with 25.30 per cent in August 2025. The deceleration was even more pronounced on a monthly basis, plunging to 1.02 per cent from 5.56 per cent in July. Highlighting this trend, the report stated: “This shows that the average prices of food items are increasing at a decreasing rate in August 2026.”
The statistics bureau attributed the food price deceleration to cost changes across items including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken, and turkey meat.
Excluding volatile agricultural produce and energy costs, core inflation moderated to 13.29 per cent year-on-year from 22.93 per cent in August 2025. On a monthly basis, core inflation dropped into negative territory at -0.06 per cent, down from 0.15 per cent in July.
Significant regional variances persist across the country. Urban annual inflation reached 15.88 per cent compared to 14.23 per cent in rural areas. However, monthly rural inflation accelerated to 1.79 per cent from 0.78 per cent in July, while monthly urban inflation slowed sharply to 0.28 per cent from 1.90 per cent.
State-by-state data showed Lagos recording the highest overall headline inflation at 23.68 per cent, followed closely by Zamfara at 22.56 per cent and Enugu at 22.06 per cent, while Sokoto registered the lowest at 2.11 per cent. On food prices specifically, Adamawa topped the list at 38.85 per cent, followed by Zamfara at 37.96 per cent and Bayelsa at 36.20 per cent.
The bureau nevertheless cautioned that direct interstate comparisons could prove misleading due to variations in local consumption habits and index weighting structures.