News Investigators/ The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 15.38 per cent in March 2026.
The NBS disclosed this in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report for March 2026, released in Abuja on Wednesday.
The report stated that the March headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.32 per cent compared to the February 2026 headline inflation rate of 15.06 per cent.
“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate for March 2026 stood at 15.38 per cent, when compared to the 15.06 per cent and 27.35 per cent recorded in February 2026 and March 2025, respectively. ”
Furthermore, the report said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in March 2026 was 4.18 per cent, which was 2.17 per cent higher than the rate recorded in February 2026 at 2.01 per cent.
“This means that in March 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in February 2026.”
It said that the three major contributors to the headline inflation year- on- year were food and non-alcoholic beverages at 5. 55 per cent, restaurants and accommodation services at 3.26 per cent, and transport at 1.80 per cent.
The report said that the least contributors were recreation, sports, and culture at 0.00per cent, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and narcotics at 0.02 per cent, and insurance and financial services at 0.02 per cent.
It said that the CPI increased to 135.4 in March 2026, and reflected a 5.4-point increase from the 130.0 recorded in February.
The report said the food inflation rate in March 2026 was 14.31 per cent on a year-on-year basis, compared to the rate recorded in March 2025 at 25.22 per cent.
It said that on a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in March 2026 was 4.17 per cent, which decreased by 0.52 per cent compared to the 4.69 per cent recorded in February.
The NBS attributed the decrease in food inflation on a month- on- month basis to the rate of change in the average prices of yams, ginger(fresh), cassava tuber, and groundnuts (shelled).
“Others are Irish potato, and ogbono/apon (dried ungrinded), tomatoes,(fresh), cassava flour sold loose, among others.”
The report said “All items less farm produces and energy” or core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 16.21 per cent in March, on a year-on-year basis.
This shows a decline of 10.91 percentage points when compared to the 25.12 per cent recorded in March 2025.
“On a month-on-month basis, the core inflation rate was 4.03 per cent in March, which increased by 3.14 per cent compared to the 0.89 per cent recorded in February.”
The report said that the inflation rate of the sub-indices for March 2026 on a month-on-month basis showed that energy stood at 6.6 per cent, farm produce at 4.6 per cent, services at 2.6 per cent, goods at 5.5 per cent and imported food at 1.1 per cent.
It said that on a year-on-year basis in March 2026, the urban inflation rate was 14.64 per cent.
“On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 3.16 per cent, which increased by 0.61 per cent compared to February at 2.55 per cent.”
The report said that in March 2026, rural inflation rate was 17.22 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
“On a month-on-month basis, the rural inflation rate was 6.73 per cent, which increased by 6.02 per cent compared to February at 0.71 per cent.”
On states’ profile analysis, the report showed that in March, the all-items index inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Bayelsa at 27.37 per cent, followed by Sokoto at 26.03 and Bauchi at 23.67 per cent.
It said that the lowest rise in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis was recorded in Osun at 5.25 per cent, followed by Kano at 9.85 per cent and Kaduna at 10.38 per cent.
However, the report said that in March 2026, the inflation rate on a month-on-month basis was highest in Zamfara at 10.77 per cent, followed by Bauchi at 9.37 per cent and Sokoto at 9.05 per cent.
“Lagos at 1.54 per cent, followed by Akwa Ibom at 1.80 per cent and Rivers at 1.89 per cent recorded a decline in month-on-month inflation.”
The report said that on a year-on-year basis, food inflation was highest in Bayelsa at 33.35 per cent, followed by Sokoto at 28.02 per cent, and Adamawa at 21.67 per cent.
“Kano at 4.29 per cent, followed by Oyo at 4.86 per cent and Katsina at 7.48 per cent recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis.’’
However, it said that on a month-on-month basis, food inflation was highest in Sokoto at 11.78 per cent, followed by Niger at 8.59 per cent, and Gombe at 8.10 per cent.
“Katsina at 0.09 per cent, followed by Ogun at 0.77 per cent and Adamawa at 1.30 per cent, recorded a decline in food inflation on a month-on-month basis.”
NAN
