Benue, Ekiti, and Kebbi States have recorded the highest year-on-year food inflation rates in Nigeria, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.
The report revealed that Benue State topped the list with a year-on-year food inflation rate of 51.76 percent, followed by Ekiti at 34.05 percent and Kebbi at 33.82 percent. This indicates that residents in these states faced the steepest increases in food prices over the past year.
Conversely, the slowest annual increases in food inflation were recorded in Ebonyi, which stood at 7.19 percent; Adamawa, at 9.52 percent; and Ogun, at 9.91 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, Benue, Ekiti, and Kebbi emerged as the states with the most significant rises in food inflation for April. Benue recorded a staggering monthly food inflation rate of 25.59 percent, followed by Ekiti with 16.73 percent and Kebbi at 13.92 percent.
The sharp rise in food prices in Benue may be linked to a recent wave of violent attacks in the North Central state, which has resulted in numerous fatalities and the displacement of communities, severely disrupting food production and supply chains.
Meanwhile, some states experienced a decline in food prices on a monthly basis. Ebonyi saw the sharpest drop, with food inflation falling by 14.43 percent. Kano followed with a decline of 11.37 percent, while Ogun recorded a 7.06 percent drop.
Nationally, Nigeria’s year-on-year food inflation rate stood at 21.26 percent in April, reflecting a slight decrease from the 2.18 percent recorded in March to 2.06 percent in April on a month-on-month basis.
The NBS attributed this decline to a reduction in the average prices of essential food items such as maize flour, wheat grain, dried okra, yam flour, soybeans, rice, Bambara beans, and brown beans.
In broader economic terms, the country’s headline inflation rate eased to 23.71 percent in April, down from 24.23 percent in March, continuing a gradual downward trend in inflationary pressure.
