Nigeria’s food inflation rate eased to 8.89 per cent year-on-year in January 2026, the first single-digit reading in 128 months, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The figure represents a sharp decline of 20.73 percentage points from the 29.63 per cent recorded in January 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, food prices contracted by 6.02 per cent in January, compared with a 0.36 per cent decline in December 2025.
The NBS attributed the slowdown to decreases in the average prices of staple items including water yam, eggs, palm oil, beans, beef, and cassava tuber.
The 8.89 per cent reading is the first time food inflation has fallen below 10 per cent since May 2015, when it stood at 9.78 per cent.
The January figure is the lowest since August 2011, when food inflation was 8.66 per cent, marking a 174-month gap.
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The latest moderation follows an intense inflation cycle between 2022 and 2024, when food inflation rose from 23.75 per cent to a peak of 40.87 per cent in June 2024.
Through 2025, the rate gradually eased, falling to 10.84 per cent in December before entering single digits in January 2026.
Food remains the largest contributor to headline inflation, accounting for 6.04 percentage points of the 15.10 per cent rate recorded in January.
Despite the national slowdown, state-level data show wide variations, with Kogi recording the highest food inflation at 19.84 per cent and Ebonyi the slowest at 1.69 per cent.
The return to single-digit food inflation after more than a decade marks a structural turning point for consumer prices in Nigeria.
The sharp disinflation trend provides relief for households and signals easing pressures on the largest component of household spending.
