Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Climbs to 15.6% in April

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate increased to 15.69 per cent in April 2026, up from 15.38 per cent recorded in March, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS disclosed the figures on Friday, noting that the April inflation rate reflected a 0.31 percentage point increase compared to the previous month.

Despite the rise in the annual inflation rate, the bureau said the pace of price increases slowed on a monthly basis. It stated that headline inflation stood at 2.13 per cent month-on-month in April, lower than the 4.18 per cent recorded in March.

According to the agency, this suggests that while prices continued to rise, the rate of increase was slower than in the previous month.

Food inflation also rose, reaching 16.06 per cent year-on-year in April 2026. However, this was lower than the 24.68 per cent recorded in April 2025.

On a month-on-month basis, food inflation dropped to 3.63 per cent in April from 4.17 per cent in March, a decline the NBS attributed to changes in the average prices of staple food items such as millet, yam flour, ginger, beef, garri, yam tubers, fresh pepper, crayfish, cassava, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, wheat, soybeans, guinea corn, plantain and carrots.

The report showed that food inflation was highest on a year-on-year basis in Enugu, Kwara and Adamawa states, while Borno, Jigawa and Taraba recorded the slowest rise.

For month-on-month food inflation, Niger, Bauchi and Kogi recorded the highest increases, whereas Kebbi, Katsina and Bayelsa saw the slowest rise in food prices.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has maintained its target of reducing inflation to a single-digit range of between six and nine per cent.

The apex bank recently cautioned state governments against uncoordinated and expansionary fiscal spending, warning that such actions could threaten the country’s shift toward an inflation-targeting monetary policy framework.