Food Crisis Raises Nigeria’s Inflation to 14.23% in October

By Dipo Olowookere

The continuous rise in the prices of food items in Nigeria occasioned by the closure of the land borders for over a year and the high cost of transportation caused by the jump in the cost of fuel have raised the inflation rate in the country.

On Monday, the National Bureaux of Statistics (NBS) released the inflation numbers of the country for the month of October 2020.

According to the stats office, the consumer price index, which measures inflation, increased year-on-year by 14.23 per cent. When compared with the previous month of September 2020, which stood at 13.71 per cent, the prices of goods and services went up by 0.52 per cent.

In the report released today, the NSE said the composite food index rose by 17.38 per cent last month from 16.66 per cent in September 2020.

It attributed the rise in the food index to increases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, fruits, vegetable, alcoholic and food beverages and oils and fats.

The average annual rate of change of the food sub-index for the 12-month period ending October 2020 over the previous 12-month average was 15.42 per cent, representing a 0.29 per cent points from the average annual rate of change recorded in September 2020, 15.13 per cent.

For the inflation rate, the NBS said the percentage change in the average composite for the 12 months period ending October 2020 over the average of the CPI for the previous 12 months period was 12.66 per cent, showing a 0.22 per cent point rise from 12.44 per cent recorded in September 2020.

The stats office noted in its report that last month, Zamfara State had the highest rise in inflation on a year-on-year basis at 17.69 per cent, Sokoto at 16.99 per cent and Ebonyi at 16.91 per cent, while Lagos was at 11.96 per cent, Abuja at 11.84 per cent and Cross River at 10.50 per cent.

However, on a month-on-month basis, Sokoto was the highest at 2.91 per cent, Edo at 2.53 per cent and Akwa Ibom at 2.52 per cent, while Oyo stood at 0.69 per cent, Taraba at 0.60 per cent and Jigawa at 0.37 per cent.