Nigeria’s inflation rate moderated to 15.10 percent in January 2026 as consumer prices fell sharply, reflecting early relief from persistent price pressures, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, released on Monday, showed that the all-items index dropped to 127.4 points in January, marking a 3.8-point decline from December 2025. The moderation was largely driven by a significant month-on-month contraction in food prices.
In a statement, Statistician-General of the Federation and NBS CEO, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, noted that headline inflation decreased slightly by 0.05 percentage points from 15.15 percent in December 2025. Compared to January 2025, the rate plunged by 12.51 percentage points from 27.61 percent, reflecting the impact of the 2024 CPI rebasing and the 2023 weight reference period.
According to the report, “the headline inflation rate for January 2026 stood at 15.10%, falling by 0.05% and 12.51% relative to the 15.15% and 27.61% recorded in December 2025 and January 2025, respectively.” The month-on-month headline inflation rate recorded a sharp contraction of -2.88%, a 3.42-percentage-point drop from the 0.54% recorded in December 2025.
Food inflation provided the biggest relief to households, slowing to 8.89 percent year-on-year and contracting 6.02 percent month-on-month. This decline was attributed to broad-based reductions in the prices of staple food items, including yams, eggs, maize, beans, beef, cassava, palm oil, and groundnut oil.
The report highlighted, “the decrease can be attributed to the reduction in average prices of Water Yam, Eggs, Green Peas, Groundnut Oil, Soya Beans, Palm Oil, Maize (Corn) Grains, Guinea Corn, Beans, Beef Meat, Melon (Egusi) Unshelled, Cassava Tuber, Cow Peas (White), among others.”
At the state level, inflationary pressures remained uneven. Benue (22.48 percent), Kogi (20.98 percent), and Abuja (19.25 percent) recorded the highest year-on-year inflation, while Ebonyi (8.72 percent), Katsina (8.94 percent), and Imo (10.61 percent) posted the slowest increases, highlighting ongoing regional disparities in price movements.
Nigeria’s Inflation Eases to 15.10% in January 2026 on Food Price Decline
