Nigeria’s Food Inflation Hits 31.5% in October

Food inflation has remained on a steady rise, reaching 31.52 percent in October. This represents a 7.80 percent points increase compared to 23.72 percent recorded in October 2022.

According to the latest CPI report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the increase in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and milk, cheese and eggs.

This is as the Food and Agriculture Organisation said that Nigeria has plunged into an unacceptable threshold of food consumption resulting from a significant spike in staple food prices following increases in fuel prices, inflation and high cost of food production.

According to FAO, over 26.5 million including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are expected to plunge into acute food insecurity between June and August 2024.

It stated that going into the lean season (June to August 2024) households may experience slight to moderate deterioration in food consumption which may plunge several states into the crisis phase.

In the month of October, Kogi, Kwara, and Lagos states had the highest food inflation while Borno, Kebbi and Jigawa recorded the slowest rise.

On a Month-on-Month basis, however, October 2023 food inflation was highest in Yobe (5.35%), Sokoto (3.68%) and Jigawa (3.45%), while Edo, Katsina and Rivers recorded the slowest rise in inflation on Month-on-Month basis.

The headline inflation in the period also increased to 27.33 percent relative to the September 2023 headline inflation rate which was 26.72 percent.