Nigeria’s headline inflation, which showed steady moderation last year, has resumed an upward trajectory, rising from 15.38 per cent in March 2026 to 15.69 per cent in April.

On a year-on-year basis, this is lower than the 26.82 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (April 2025).

The rise in headline inflation, the second consecutive month in 2026, reflects the effects of the crisis in the Middle East and the high fuel prices which has affected the cost of transportation.

The National Bureau of Statistics  (NBS), which announced this on Friday, also said that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the rate of changes in the average prices of goods and services commonly purchased by consumers relative to a base period, also increased to 138.3 points in April 2026, reflecting a 2.9-point increase from the preceding month when it was 135.4.

After CPI rebasing in 2025, shifting the base year from 2009 to 2024, the headline inflation declined considerably from 34.8 per cent in December 2024 to 24.48 in January 2025 and dropped consistently for eight months. The drop, however, did not ease the high cost of living in the country, as the effect of subsidy removal ensured Nigerians continued to suffer.

It had maintained a deceleration trend since then. But following the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East and the sharp rise in the price of fuel, it went up in March and again in April.

The NBS also reports that the food inflation rate in April 2026 was 16.06 per cent on a year-on-year basis, lower than 24.68 per cent recorded in April 2025. On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in April 2026 was 3.63 per cent, down by 0.54 per cent points from the March 2026  figure, which was 4.17 per cent.

NBS attributed the drop in food inflation to the rate of change in the average prices of millet whole grain, yam flour, ginger (fresh), beef, garri, yam tuber, pepper (fresh), cray fish, cassava tuber, beans, Irish potatoes, tomatoes (fresh), wheat grain (sold loose), soy beans, guinea corn, plantain, carrots (fresh), among others.

In April 2026, Sokoto State recorded the highest inflation rate on a year-on-year basis with 25.74 per cent, followed by Bauchi, 22.52 per cent and Zamfara, 22.03 per cent, while Edo, with 5.91 per cent, Borno, 6.72 per cent and Jigawa, 7.04 per cent recorded the lowest rise in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis.

On a Month-on-Month basis, however, April 2026 recorded the highest increases in Niger, 5.66 per cent; Kano, 4.50 per cent and Plateau, 4.39 per cent; while Bayelsa, 0.64 per cent, Enugu, 0.98 per cent, and Rivers, 1.02 per cent recorded a decline in the month-on-month inflation.

The report shows that on a year-on-year basis, food was most expensive Enugu, with food inflation rate of 32.67 per cent, followed by Kwara with 30.77 per cent, and Adamawa with 30.14 per cent, while Borno, with 1.67 per cent, Jigawa with 6.17 per cent and Taraba with 7.19 per cent recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, however, April 2026 food inflation was highest in Niger with 8.53 per cent; Bauchi, 6.78 per cent and Kogi, 6.72 per cent, while Kebbi, 0.23 per cent; Katsina, 0.47 per cent; and Bayelsa, 1.29 per cent recorded a decline in food inflation on a month-on-month basis.