States with the fastest rising cost of living in Nigeria

In July of 2023, there was a notable uptick in the overall prices of goods and services. The metric commonly known as headline inflation, which reflects the cost of living, experienced a moderate rise of 1.29% when contrasted with the preceding month, June 2023. This is in stark contrast to the significant 22.79% surge witnessed in June.

Annually, the cost of living in July 2023 escalated by 24.08%, marking a 4.44% increase over the rate documented in July 2022 (19.64%). This data underscores that the general cost of living in July 2023 exhibited an upward trend compared to the corresponding month in the previous year, July 2022.

Year-on-year inflation across states 

Kogi, Lagos, and Ondo states recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate from July 2022 to July 2023 with 28.45%, 27.30%, and 26.83% respectively.

The other states completing the top ten are Bayelsa (26.65%), Ogun (26.60%), Rivers (26.30%), Abia (26.09%), Akwa-Ibom (26.06%), Oyo, (25.81%) and Anambra (25.21%) 

On the other hand, Borno (20.71%), Jigawa (20.85%), and Sokoto (20.92%) recorded the lowest year-on-year inflation rate in the country.  

Year-on-year food inflation 

Food prices in July 2023 increased the most in Kogi state (34.53%), Lagos state (32.52%), and Bayelsa state (31.31%), when compared to July 2022.

The other seven are; Kwara (30.87%), Imo (30.28%), Ekiti (30.19%), Ondo (30.14%), Ogun (30.12%), Edo (29.89%) and Akwa-Ibom (29.61%). 

Food prices saw the slowest increase in Jigawa (20.90%), Sokoto (21.63%), and Kebbi (22.45%).  

Monthly food inflation 

On a month-on-month basis, the inflation rate was highest in the following states- Kogi (4.99%), Abia (4.12%), and Akwa Ibom (4.07%).

Other states completing the top ten are; Ogun (4.03%), Oyo (3.98%), Bayelsa (3.97%), Lagos (3.40%), Edo (3.38%), Rivers (3.25%), and Kaduna (3.08%).  

The food price increase was slowest in the following states Taraba (-0.21%), Jigawa (0.28%), and Yobe (0.90%) on a month-on-month basis.  

Drivers of Inflation 

Overall, states from the southern parts of Nigeria saw higher inflation both in food inflation and all item inflation index while those in the north saw moderate level inflation.  

Food is the major driver of inflation in Nigeria, the data from the NBS food price watch for June 2023 reveals that the prices of staple foods increased on average by 25% year-on-year from June 2022.

The National Bureau of Statistics noted that oil, bread, fats, fish, cereals, yam, etc were mostly responsible for the consistent increase in inflation for most of the past twelve months. 

Beyond food, electricity, rent, transport, education, health, etc were adjudged as the major drivers of inflation in the country.  

On average food inflation in Nigeria stands at 26.98% which is 4.97% higher than the figure recorded for June 2022.