Inflation Rises to 24.23% in March

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 24.23 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has stated.

A report by the bureau said the figure was a 1.05 percent increase from the 23.18 percent recorded in February.

This is the first increase of the inflation figure since the NBS rebased the Consumer Price Index (CPI) earlier in the year.

“Looking at the movement, the March 2025 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05% compared to the February 2025 Headline inflation rate. Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in March 2025 was 3.90%, which was 1.85% higher than the rate recorded in February 2025 (2.04%).

“This means that in March 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in February 2025.”

It explained that contributions of items on the divisional level are food and non-alcoholic beverages, 9.28 percent; restaurants and accommodation services, 2.99 percent; transport, 2.47 percent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 1.95 percent, education services 1.44 percent, health 1.40 percent.

It said food inflation rate in March 2025 was 21.79 percent on a year-on-year basis.

“However, on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in March 2025 was 2.18 percent, up by 0.50 percent compared to February 2025 (1.67 percent),” the NBS added.

It attributed the increase to the rise in the average prices of ginger (fresh), garri (Yellow), broken rice (ofada), honey (natural production), crabs, potatoes, plantain flour, periwinkle (unshelled), pepper (fresh), etc.