Lagos, Imo and Kwara are among states in the federation whose residents paid more for food in February as Nigeria’s inflation rate soars to 21.91 percent, according to the latest CPI report released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The February increase comes across as the second consecutive rise in the country’s inflation figure this year, as Nigerians struggle to access cash for their daily needs — a challenge caused by the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to the NBS report, “the February 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.09 percent points when compared to that of January 2023 headline inflation rate”.
“On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in February 2023 was 1.90 percent, indicating a 0.18 percent decrease compared to the rate recorded in January 2023 (2.08 percent).” the report reads.
“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve-months ending February 2023 over the previous twelve-months average was 22.12 percent, which was a 2.44 percent increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in February 2022 (19.69 percent).
“In February 2023, food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kwara (29.51 percent), Imo (27.47 percent), and Lagos (27.42 percent); while Sokoto (18.54 percent), Jigawa (19.67 percent), and Yobe (21.89 percent) recorded the slowest rise.
“On a month-on-month basis, however, February 2023 food inflation was highest in Yobe (3.15 percent), Edo (3.03 percent), and Ogun (2.90 Percent); while Rivers (0.75 percent), Sokoto (0.89 percent), and Nasarawa (0.90 percent) recorded the lowest.”
“Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.21 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in February 2022, which was 15.70 percent,” the bureau said.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in February 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., February 2022).
