The prices of major food items such as maize, milk and plantain have almost doubled within 12 months, leading the pack in terms of the most significant price increase in Nigeria.
According to the latest selected food prices report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the average price of 1kg of maize grain (white sold loose) rose by 93 per cent to N580.1 in August 2023 from N300.5 in the same period of last year while the yellow type grew by 90.2 per cent to N583.7 from N306.9.
The average price of a 170g evaporated canned milk carnation increased by 81.7 per cent to N431.3. The cost of 1kg of plantain (unripe) and plantain(ripe) rose by 78.6 per cent and 77.1 per cent, respectively.
Others are:
- A 170g evaporated canned milk (peak) grew by 76.1 per cent.
- 1 kg of rice (locally sold loose), 62.7 per cent.
- 1 kg of rice (medium-grained), 51.5 per cent and 1 kilogram of garri (white sold loose), 49.2 per cent.
The report also revealed that the total average food price for the 43 food items rose by 31.5 per cent to N51,414.1 from N39,108.5 with 1kg of frozen chicken (N 3,144.1), 1kg of Beef, boneless (N2,799.5), 1kg of dried catfish (N2,650.0), 1kg of dried mudfish (N2,535.1) and dried fish sardine (N2,226.9) recording the highest prices for August.
In the NBS’s latest Consumer Price Index report, food inflation rose to 29.34 per cent, the highest in 18 years, from 26.98 per cent in July.
Food inflation, which constitutes 50 per cent of the inflation rate, was the primary factor that pushed the country’s headline inflation to 25.80 per cent from 24.08 per cent.
“The rise in the food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of oil and fat, bread and cereals, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables and potatoes, yam and other tubers, milk, cheese and eggs,” the NBS said.
