Nigeria’s inflation rate eased to 15.10 percent in January 2026, marking a notable slowdown in consumer price growth following the rebasing of the Consumer Price Index, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The latest CPI report released on Monday showed that the all-items index declined to 127.4 points in January, representing a 3.8-point drop from December 2025. The moderation was largely driven by a sharp month-on-month contraction in food prices, offering early signs of relief for households that have endured prolonged price pressures.
In a statement, the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the NBS, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, explained that headline inflation fell marginally on a year-on-year basis by 0.05 percentage points from 15.15 percent recorded in December 2025. More significantly, it declined by 12.51 percentage points from 27.61 percent in January 2025, reflecting the statistical impact of the new 2024 CPI base year and the 2023 weight reference period.
The Bureau stated that the headline inflation rate for January 2026 stood at 15.10 percent, while the month-on-month rate contracted by 2.88 percent. This represents a 3.42 percentage point decline compared to the 0.54 percent recorded in December 2025.
Food inflation provided the strongest support for the slowdown. On a year-on-year basis, food inflation dropped to 8.89 percent and contracted sharply by 6.02 percent month-on-month. The Bureau attributed the improvement to broad declines in staple food prices across the country.
Read also:
- Nigeria’s inflation drops to 15.15% in December 2025 as NBS reviews CPI methodology
- Nigeria’s inflation rate falls to 14.45% in November 2025, lowest in 5 years
- Nigeria’s economic reforms yet to ease hardship as inflation, taxes crush businesses – NECA
Key food items that recorded lower average prices included yam, eggs, maize, beans, beef, cassava, palm oil and groundnut oil. The decline in these essentials is expected to ease pressure on household spending and improve consumer purchasing power in the near term.
Despite the overall moderation, inflationary pressures remain uneven across states. Benue recorded the highest year-on-year headline inflation at 22.48 percent, followed by Kogi at 20.98 percent and the Federal Capital Territory at 19.25 percent. In contrast, Ebonyi posted 8.72 percent, Katsina 8.94 percent and Imo 10.61 percent, reflecting wide regional disparities in price movements.
The January figures mark the first major inflation reading under the rebased CPI framework and will likely shape policy discussions on interest rates, fiscal measures and cost-of-living interventions in the months ahead.
