North records highest as food inflation jumps 39.93% in November

Nigeria’s food inflation rate surged to 39.93 percent in November 2024 on year-on-year, a 7.08 percentage point increase from the 32.84 percent recorded in November 2023, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The spike in food inflation was driven by significant price increases across various food categories such as tubers (yam, water yam, and coco yam); bread and cereals (guinea corn, maize, and rice); oils and fats (palm oil and vegetable oil), and tobacco (beer and pinto).

On a month-on-month basis, the national food inflation rate in November stood at 2.98 percent, an increase of 0.05 percentage points from the 2.94 percent recorded in October.

Key drivers included higher prices for items such as dried fish, rice, yam flour, millet, fresh milk, and frozen chicken.

Read also: Rice, yam, bread drive food inflation up 39.2% in October

The analysis showed that food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Sokoto, at 51.30 percent, followed by Yobe, at 49.69 percent, and Edo, at 47.77 percent. Kwara recorded 31.39 percent, Kogi, 32.95 percent, while Rivers recorded 33.27 percent, the slowest.

On a month-on-month basis, however, November 2024 food inflation was highest in Yobe, at 6.52 percent; Kano, at 5.95 percent, and Kebbi, at 5.68 percent. Borno recorded 0.76 percent; Adamawa, 0.90 percent, and Kogi, 1.21 percent, the slowest.

The average annual food inflation rate for the 12 months, ending in November, was 38.67 percent, which was 11.58 percentage points higher than the 27.09 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2023.

All Items inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was, however, highest in Bauchi, at 46.21 percent, followed by Kebbi, at 42.41 percent; Anambra at 40.48 percent; Delta recorded 27.47 percent, Benue, 28.98 percent, and Katsina, 29.57 percent, the lowest rise in headline inflation on year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, however, November 2024 recorded the highest increases in Yobe, at 5.14 percent; Kebbi, 5.10 percen; Kano, 4.88 percent; Adamawa, 0.95 percent, Osun, 1.12 percent, while Kogi recorded 1.29 percent, the slowest rise on month-on-month.