Nigeria food inflation falls to 19.57% in August, first drop in six months
Nigeria’s food inflation rate fell to 19.57% year-on-year in August 2026, down 0.74 percentage points from July’s 20.31% and ending five straight months of increases. The figure is also 5.73 points below the 25.30% recorded in August 2025, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) CPI report released on Monday. Month-on-month food inflation slowed sharply to 1.02% from 5.56% in July, a drop of 4.54 points, showing that food prices are still rising but at a much slower pace.
The NBS said the slowdown was driven by lower average prices for palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon (egusi), fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat, among others. Despite the relief, food remains the biggest contributor to overall inflation, accounting for 6.16 percentage points of the 15.39% headline inflation rate in August—far ahead of transport (1.64 pp) and housing (1.30 pp). At the state level, Adamawa recorded the highest year-on-year food inflation at 38.85%, while Borno saw deflation of –4.04% and Jigawa –0.23%. The average annual food inflation for the 12 months ending August 2026 was 15.70%, down from 29.86% a year earlier.
Will you notice cheaper groceries soon, or will you keep adjusting your budget given the wide differences across states and the still‑elevated national food inflation rate?