By Anthony Isaac, Abuja
Nigeria’s inflation rate declined to 23.71% in April 2025, representing a 0.52 percentage point drop from the 24.23% recorded in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released Thursday, the Bureau highlighted that the major contributors to headline inflation were Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (9.49%), Restaurants and Accommodation Services (3.06%), and Transport (2.53%). The least contributors were Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco, and Narcotics (0.09%), as well as Recreation, Sport, and Culture (0.07%).
On a month-on-month basis, headline inflation stood at 1.86% in April, down from 3.90% in March—a 2.04 percentage point decrease.
Food inflation on a year-on-year basis was 21.26% in April. Month-on-month, food inflation dropped slightly to 2.06%, compared to 2.18% in March. The decline was driven by lower average prices of items such as maize flour, wheat grain, dried okra, yam flour, soybeans, rice, bambara beans, and brown beans.
Core inflation—which excludes volatile agricultural produce and energy—stood at 23.39% year-on-year in April. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation dropped to 1.34%, a 2.39 percentage point decline from 3.73% in March.
For the newly introduced sub-indices, inflation rates were as follows: Farm Produce: 2.64%; Energy: 9.21%; Services: 3.44%; Goods: 3.89%.
Urban inflation in April was 24.29% year-on-year. On a month-on-month basis, it stood at 1.18%, a notable drop from 3.96% in March.
Rural inflation came in at 22.83% year-on-year. Month-on-month, the rate was 3.56%, slightly down from 3.73% in March.
State-Level Analysis
On a year-on-year basis, the highest all-item inflation rates were recorded in: Enugu (35.98%); Kebbi (35.13%) and Niger (34.85%)
States with the lowest increases were: Ondo (13.43%); Cross River (17.11%) and Kwara (17.28%)
Month-on-month, the highest inflation increases occurred in: Sokoto (16.26%), Nasarawa (16.02%) and Niger (14.74%). Meanwhile, Oyo (-6.45%), Osun (-4.54%), and Ondo (-3.44%) recorded declines.
Year-on-year food inflation was highest in: Benue (51.76%), Ekiti (34.05%) and Kebbi (33.82%). The slowest increases were seen in: Ebonyi (7.19%), Adamawa (9.52%) and Ogun (9.91%).
On a month-on-month basis, the highest food inflation was in: Benue (25.59%), Ekiti (16.73%) and Yobe (13.92%). The most significant declines were recorded in: Ebonyi (-14.43%), Kano (-11.37%) qnd Ogun (-7.06%).
