Nigeria's food inflation has turned lower for the first time in six months. The National Bureau of Statistics said on 15 September 2026 that food inflation fell to 19.57% year on year in August, down from 20.31% in July, a decline of 0.74 percentage points after five consecutive monthly rises, Nairametrics reported.
The Numbers
Month on month, food inflation stood at 1.02% in August, and headline inflation eased to 15.39%, according to Channels Television. The August 2026 food rate is well below the 25.30% recorded in August 2025, a gap of 5.73 percentage points, as Legit.ng and Ecofin Agency also reported.
What Drove the Slowdown
The NBS attributed the easing to changes in the average prices of palm oil, carrots, pepper, onions, cassava flour, beef, yam flour, water yam, melon (egusi), fresh ginger, fresh fish, Irish potatoes, wheat grain, frozen chicken and turkey meat, Channels Television reported. PRNigeria carried the same list of items.
How the Year Unfolded
The August fall follows a steep climb. Under the rebased CPI, food inflation ran from 8.89% in January 2026 to 17.52% in June and 20.31% in July before easing to 19.57% in August, according to figures compiled in the FoodPrices news pack from NBS releases.
Lagos Market Data Confirms the Turn
FoodPrices' own Lagos market data offers an independent check on the NBS reading. The Lagos survey for the week of 18 September 2026 recorded 164 fallers against 131 risers across 3,672 market-level prices. The week before, 11 September, ran 177 fallers against 130 risers. Two consecutive weeks in which falling prices outnumbered rising ones is consistent with food inflation slowing.
The item detail points the same way. In the week of 18 September, Pepper (Rodo) fell 7.4% to a mean of ₦2,500 per kg and medium yam fell 7.3% to ₦2,410 a tuber, while onions fell 1.9% and Tomatoes 1.5%, all means across 10 Lagos markets. Pepper and onions both appear on the NBS list of items behind the national slowdown.
One Item Moving Against the Trend
Not everything is easing. Beans rose for a second consecutive week in Lagos, with Beans (Drum) 1 Derica up 1.3% to a mean of ₦878 across 9 markets in the week of 18 September. A 19.57% annual rate also means food still costs nearly a fifth more than it did a year ago, even as the pace of increase slows.
Live prices: foodprices.ng/real-time-prices