Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 24.23 percent year-on-year in March from 23.18 percent recorded in February 2025.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that released the data on Tuesday, said the figure was a 1.05 percent higher than the February 2025 inflation rate.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the increase was due majorly to price rises for food and non-alcoholic beverages, which were the biggest contributor to annual inflation rate in March 2025.
The NBS said food inflation rate in March 2025 was 21.79 percent on a year-on-year basis.
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.
The NBS stated, “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.”
The NBS, which attributed this development to rise in food and non-alcoholic beverages highlighted that food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted for 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.
Giving details of Food inflation, the NBS said “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).”
This is the first rise in inflation figure after the NBS rebased the Consumer Price Index (CPI) earlier in the year.
