Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 34.60% in November 2024, up from 33.88% in October, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The November figure represents a 0.72 percentage point increase from the previous month. On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.40 percentage points higher than the 28.20% recorded in November 2023, underscoring a sharp rise in prices over the past year.
Food inflation remained a major driver, hitting 39.93% year-on-year in November 2024, compared to 32.84% in the same period last year—an increase of 7.08 percentage points. Month-on-month, food inflation edged up slightly to 2.98% in November from 2.94% in October.
The surge in food prices was fueled by rising costs of essential commodities such as mudfish, dried catfish, sardines, rice, yam flour, millet, corn flour, eggs, milk, dried beef, goat meat, and frozen chicken, the NBS report noted.
These inflationary pressures have exacerbated the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, described as Nigeria’s worst since its independence over six decades ago.
Global financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have attributed much of Nigeria’s economic turmoil to delayed policy reforms, such as the removal of energy subsidies and the floating of the naira.
President Bola Tinubu implemented these policies shortly after taking office in May 2023. The removal of the petrol subsidy caused fuel prices to skyrocket from under N200 per litre to over N1,100, while the naira depreciated sharply, dropping from N700/$ to N1,600/$.
This combination of factors has deepened inflationary pressures and intensified economic challenges for millions of Nigerians.