Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 15.93 percent in May 2026, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
The figure represents a slight increase from the 15.69 percent recorded in April 2026, making it the third consecutive monthly rise this year. However, the rate remains significantly lower than the 26.06 percent recorded in May 2025.
According to the NBS, the headline inflation rate increased by 0.24 percentage points compared to the previous month.
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“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate rose to 15.93%, up from 15.69% in April 2026 and down from 26.06% in the same month of the preceding year (May 2025),” the bureau stated.
Despite the annual increase, the month-on-month inflation rate eased to 1.75 percent in May, down from 2.13 percent in April. This indicates that while prices continued to rise, the pace of increase slowed compared to the previous month.
The NBS explained that the lower monthly inflation rate suggests that average prices increased at a slower rate in May than in April.
Food Inflation Edges Higher
Food inflation also recorded a marginal increase, rising to 16.96 percent year-on-year in May 2026 from 16.68 percent in April. The figure, however, was considerably lower than the 24.55 percent recorded in May 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation declined to 2.98 percent, compared to 3.63 percent in April, reflecting a slower rise in food prices.
The NBS attributed movements in food prices to changes in the average cost of key staples, including fresh onions, maize, melon (egusi), water yam, cassava flour, crayfish, fresh pepper, tomatoes, wheat grain, cassava tubers, yam tubers, sweet potatoes, fresh ginger, plantain and cowpea.
States With Highest and Lowest Food Inflation
The report showed that on a year-on-year basis, food inflation was highest in Adamawa State at 29.62 percent, followed by Kwara at 28.47 percent and Rivers at 28.40 percent.
Conversely, Borno recorded a food inflation rate of -6.53 percent, while Taraba and Bayelsa posted the slowest increases at 1.13 percent and 5.99 percent respectively.
On a month-on-month basis, Bauchi recorded the highest food inflation rate at 7.73 percent, followed by Ogun at 6.86 percent and Jigawa at 6.69 percent.
Meanwhile, Niger State recorded the slowest increase at 3.54 percent, while Katsina and Gombe experienced declines of 3.48 percent and 2.22 percent respectively.
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