By Abiola Olawale
Nigeria’s headline inflation rate climbed to 24.23% in March 2025, up from 23.18% in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
A report released by the NBS revealed that the 1.05 per cent was driven primarily by surging food and beverage prices.
This is the first increase in the inflation figure since the NBS rebased the Consumer Price Index (CPI) earlier in the year, signalling persistent economic challenges for Nigeria.
Part of the report reads: “Looking at the movement, the March 2025 Headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05% compared to the February 2025 Headline inflation rate. Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in March 2025 was 3.90%, which was 1.85% higher than the rate recorded in February 2025 (2.04%).
“This means that in March 2025, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in February 2025.”
It explained that contributions of items on the divisional level are food and non-alcoholic beverages, 9.28 per cent; restaurants and accommodation services, 2.99 per cent; transport, 2.47 per cent; housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels, 1.95 per cent; education services 1.44 per cent, health 1.40 per cent.
It said the food inflation rate in March 2025 was 21.79 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
“However, on a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate in March 2025 was 2.18 per cent, up by 0.50 per cent compared to February 2025 (1.67 per cent),” the NBS added.
