Adamawa State recorded Nigeria’s highest food inflation rate at 38.85 percent in August 2026, nearly double the national food inflation rate of 19.57 percent.
The latest Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Zamfara followed Adamawa with annual food inflation of 37.96 percent, while Bayelsa recorded 36.20 percent.
The figures contrast sharply with the national picture, where food inflation stood at 19.57 percent year-on-year in August, down from 25.30 percent in the corresponding period of 2025.
This means Adamawa’s 38.85 percent rate was almost twice the national food inflation rate, underscoring how differently households across Nigeria are experiencing movements in food prices.
At the lower end of the distribution, Borno recorded -4.04 percent year-on-year food inflation, while Jigawa recorded -0.23 percent and Kebbi posted 3.47 percent.
The difference between Adamawa’s 38.85 percent and Borno’s -4.04 percent represents a spread of 42.89 percentage points, demonstrating the scale of the variation in food-price movements across states.
The NBS, however, cautioned against using the state inflation figures as direct cost-of-living comparisons.
According to the statistical agency, the Consumer Price Index is weighted according to consumption expenditure patterns, which vary between states and locations. The weights assigned to individual food and non-food items can therefore differ significantly across states.
The August report also showed that the states experiencing the strongest annual food inflation were not necessarily those recording the biggest increases during the month itself.
On a month-on-month basis, Katsina recorded Nigeria’s highest food inflation at 9.48 percent, followed by Rivers at 8.86 percent and Osun at 8.32 percent.
In contrast, food prices declined most sharply during the month in Taraba, where the food inflation rate was -12.42 percent. Borno recorded -12.15 percent, while Bauchi recorded -8.88 percent.
The distinction is important because the annual figure measures price movements compared with August 2025, while the monthly measure captures changes between July and August 2026.
At the national level, the monthly food inflation picture improved substantially.
Food inflation slowed to 1.02 percent month-on-month in August from 5.56 percent in July, representing a decline of 4.55 percentage points. The NBS said this showed that average food prices were increasing at a slower rate during the month.
The moderation was associated with changes in the average prices of products including palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon, fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages nevertheless remained the largest source of inflationary pressure on Nigerian households.
The category contributed 6.16 percentage points to Nigeria’s 15.39 percent headline inflation rate in August, substantially more than restaurants and accommodation services at 1.99 percentage points, transport at 1.64 points and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.30 points.
The average annual food inflation rate for the twelve months ending August 2026 stood at 15.70 percent, compared with 29.86 percent in the corresponding twelve-month period ending August 2025.
The state-level figures show that the improvement in Nigeria’s national food inflation rate has not been evenly distributed across the country.
While national monthly food inflation slowed sharply in August, households in states including Adamawa, Zamfara and Bayelsa continued to face annual food-price increases considerably above the national average, leaving food costs an important source of pressure despite the broader moderation in inflation.
