Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 15.43 per cent in July 2026, but the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed renewed pressure on food prices, with food inflation accelerating sharply on a month-on-month basis.
The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index report for July 2026, released on Monday, showing that headline inflation fell by 0.48 percentage points from 15.91 per cent recorded in June.
However, food inflation, which has a direct impact on household welfare, rose to 5.56 per cent month-on-month in July, from 3.75 per cent in June. This represented a 1.82 percentage-point increase, according to the statistics agency.
The acceleration was driven by higher average prices of several food items, including crayfish, fresh pepper, onions, carrots, rice, water yam, tomatoes, garri, plantain, beef, eggs, guinea corn, ginger and plantain flour.
On a year-on-year basis, however, food inflation moderated significantly to 20.31 per cent in July, compared with 26.20 per cent in July 2025.
The NBS stated, “The Food inflation rate in July 2026 was 20.31 per cent on a year-on-year basis and stood at 26.20 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (July 2025). On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in July 2026 was 5.56 per cent, up by 1.82 percentage points from June 2026 (3.75 per cent).”
The development means that while the overall pace of annual price increases continued to slow, consumers faced a much faster increase in food prices during July compared with the previous month.
