*** Food Prices, Transport, and Accommodation Services Drive Increase
Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 24.23 percent in March 2025, marking the first upward movement in the headline figure since the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) rebased the Consumer Price Index (CPI) earlier in the year.
According to the NBS report released on Wednesday, the March figure represents a 1.05 percentage point jump from the 23.18 percent recorded in February.
“Looking at the movement, the March 2025 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05% compared to the February 2025 rate,” the NBS stated. “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%).”
The bureau explained that this means average prices rose faster in March than they did in February, further squeezing household incomes already strained by rising costs of essential goods and services.
Key Drivers of Inflation
Items contributing most to the inflationary pressure were food and non-alcoholic beverages (9.28%), restaurants and accommodation services (2.99%), transport (2.47%), housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (1.95%), education (1.44%), and health services (1.40%).
Food inflation alone stood at 21.79 percent year-on-year in March. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation climbed to 2.18 percent, up by 0.50 percentage points from the 1.67 percent recorded in February.
According to the report, the increase in food prices was driven by rising costs of ginger (fresh), yellow garri, ofada rice, natural honey, crabs, potatoes, plantain flour, unshelled periwinkle, and fresh pepper, among others.
The fresh surge is likely to heighten concerns among policymakers and the public, as inflation continues to outpace wage growth, eroding the purchasing power of millions of Nigerians.
Analysts say the uptick may prompt further interventions from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has already implemented a series of monetary tightening measures in a bid to rein in inflation and stabilize the naira.
The March data highlights the continuing challenge facing Africa’s largest economy, as it struggles with exchange rate volatility, high food prices, and lingering supply chain disruptions.
