The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate climbed to 24.23 percent in March 2025.
The agency disclosed this in its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, released on Tuesday.
According to the data, the March inflation figure marks an increase from the 23.18 percent recorded in February, suggesting a return to earlier levels like the 24.48 percent seen at the start of the year after the CPI rebasing.
“In March 2025, the Headline inflation rate rose to 24.23% relative to the February 2025 headline inflation rate of 23.18%,” the NBS said.
“Looking at the movement, the March 2025 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05% compared to the February 2025 Headline inflation rate.”
The NBS also highlighted that the month-on-month headline inflation rate for March stood at 3.90 percent, representing a 1.85 percent rise from the 2.04 percent recorded in February.
“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,” the bureau explained.
The statistics agency noted that the key contributors to the headline inflation rate were rising prices of food, transportation, and accommodation services.
FOOD INFLATION REACHES 21.79%
The bureau also pointed out that food inflation reached 21.79 percent year-on-year in March 2025.
On a month-to-month basis, the NBS stated that the food inflation rate was 2.18 percent during the period under review, which is 0.50 percent higher than the 1.67 percent reported in February.
“The increase can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of Ginger (fresh), Garri (Yellow), Broken Rice (Ofada), Honey (Natural Production), Crabs, Potatoes, Plantain Flour, Peri-winkle (Unshelled), pepper (fresh), etc,” the NBS said.
The report further noted that on a year-on-year basis, Oyo State recorded the highest food inflation rate at 34.41 percent, followed by Kaduna with 31.14 percent, and Kebbi at 30.85 percent.
Meanwhile, states such as Bayelsa (9.61 percent), Adamawa (12.41 percent), and Akwa Ibom (12.60 percent) recorded the slowest year-on-year food inflation increases.
In terms of month-on-month changes, Oyo (19.74 percent), Kaduna (17.24 percent), and Kebbi (14.03 percent) again led the chart with the highest food inflation rates.
Conversely, Sokoto (-14.10 percent), Nasarawa (-9.91 percent), and Edo (-5.78 percent) recorded the most significant month-on-month declines in food inflation, according to the NBS.
