Inflation hits 16.82% in Nigeria as food prices wallop in Ekiti, Taraba, Osun

Nigeria’s data authority, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released figures (Pdf) for April 2022. The consumer price index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased to 16.82 percent on a year-on-year basis.

The April 2022 CPI is 1.3 percent points lower compared to the rate recorded in April 2021 (18.12) percent.

The simple meaning of inflation is a “sustained upward movement in the overall price level of goods and services in an economy. Holding all else constant, this corresponds with a loss of purchasing power for a currency utilized within the economy”.

That is, your ₦500 now behaves like ₦450 (or less), by virtue of what you could buy or make payment for with it.

On month-on-month basis however, April 2022, recorded the highest increases in Abuja (2.91%), Taraba (2.76%) and Bauchi (2.65%), while Benue (0.29%), Kogi (0.48%) and Niger (0.66%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.

Food inflation on a month-on-month basis, was highest in Ekiti (4.03%), Taraba (3.68%), and Osun (3.04%), while Anambra (0.66%), Kogi (1.01%), and Bauchi (1.08%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.

Nigeria’s current inflation rate is not unconnected with the recent fuel scarcity that has hit the country’s former statistician-general, Late Simon Harry, hinted in February  that “as you are bringing your commodities to the market for sale, you will be thinking of adding some amount on the selling costs so that you will be able to recover the costs of transportation.”