Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 15.69 per cent in April 2026 as rising costs of food, transportation, healthcare, and hospitality continued to put pressure on household spending across the country.
The latest figures were released by the National Bureau of Statistics in its Consumer Price Index report published on Friday.
The report showed that the headline inflation rate rose from 15.38 per cent recorded in March 2026.
According to the bureau, “In April 2026, the Headline inflation rate rose to 15.69 per cent, up from 15.38 per cent in March 2026 and stood at 26.82 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (April 2025). Looking at the movement, the April 2026 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.31 per cent compared to the March 2026 Headline inflation rate.”
The NBS also stated that the Consumer Price Index rose to 138.3 points in April from 135.4 points in March.
Despite the increase in yearly inflation, the report indicated that the pace of monthly price increases slowed during the period under review. Headline inflation on a month-on-month basis dropped to 2.13 per cent in April from 4.18 per cent in March.
“This means that in April 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in March 2026,” the bureau explained.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages remained the biggest contributors to inflation, accounting for 6.40 percentage points of the total figure.
Restaurants and accommodation services contributed 3.56 percentage points, while transportation accounted for 1.70 percentage points. Healthcare contributed 1.21 percentage points. Housing, electricity, water, gas, and other fuels contributed 0.77 percentage points.
Other areas that pushed prices upward included personal care and miscellaneous services, education, clothing and footwear, as well as information and communication services.
The report further showed that the average CPI for the twelve months ending April 2026 stood at 19.16 per cent, slightly lower than the 19.33 per cent recorded in April 2025.
On urban inflation, the NBS said the year-on-year rate stood at 15.40 per cent in April, while the month-on-month rate declined to 1.86 per cent from 3.16 per cent in March.
For rural inflation, the bureau reported a higher year-on-year rate of 16.36 per cent. However, the month-on-month figure slowed to 2.80 per cent from 6.73 per cent in the previous month.
Food inflation also recorded an annual increase. The report stated that food inflation stood at 16.06 per cent in April 2026 compared to 24.68 per cent in April 2025. On a monthly basis, the rate slowed to 3.63 per cent from 4.17 per cent in March.
The bureau linked the rise in food prices to increases in staple commodities such as millet, yam flour, ginger, beef, garri, fresh pepper, beans, tomatoes, wheat grain, soybeans, plantain, and carrots.
According to the report, “The average annual rate of Food inflation for the twelve months ending April 2026, relative to the previous twelve-month average, was 17.55 per cent, which was 17.05 percentage points lower than the average annual rate of change recorded in April 2025 (34.60 per cent).”
Core inflation, which excludes farm produce and energy prices, stood at 15.86 per cent year-on-year in April 2026. This was lower than the 26.05 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
On a monthly basis, core inflation slowed to 1.03 per cent from 4.03 per cent in March.
The report also showed that farm produce inflation rose by 19.8 per cent year-on-year and six per cent month-on-month. Energy inflation recorded 4.6 per cent annual growth and eight per cent monthly growth.
According to the NBS, services inflation stood at 16.7 per cent year-on-year and 2.1 per cent month-on-month, while goods inflation was 15.7 per cent annually and 3.2 per cent monthly.
Imported food inflation stood at 10.5 per cent year-on-year and 4.4 per cent month-on-month.
At the state level, Sokoto recorded the highest all-items inflation rate on a year-on-year basis at 25.74 per cent. Bauchi followed with 22.52 per cent, while Zamfara recorded 22.03 per cent.
Edo recorded the slowest rise at 5.91 per cent. Borno followed with 6.72 per cent, while Jigawa posted 7.04 per cent.
On a month-on-month basis, Niger recorded the highest increase at 5.66 per cent, followed by Kano at 4.50 per cent and Plateau at 4.39 per cent.
Bayelsa recorded the slowest increase at 0.64 per cent, while Enugu and Rivers recorded 0.98 per cent and 1.02 per cent respectively.
For food inflation, Enugu recorded the highest year-on-year increase at 32.67 per cent. Kwara followed with 30.77 per cent, while Adamawa posted 30.14 per cent.
Borno recorded the slowest food inflation rate at 1.67 per cent, followed by Jigawa at 6.17 per cent and Taraba at 7.19 per cent.
The bureau noted that inflation comparisons across states should be interpreted carefully because spending patterns differ from one state to another.
The report added that the CPI tracks changes in the prices of goods and services commonly purchased by consumers across the country.
Meanwhile, the Financial Market Dealers Association had projected that headline inflation would rise to 16.42 per cent in April 2026 due to persistent pressure from food prices, energy costs, and global commodity prices.
However, the latest figures released by the NBS showed that inflation settled below the projected rate, although food and energy costs remained major drivers of price increases nationwide.
