Lagos Records Nigeria’s Highest Inflation at 23.68% in August

Lagos State recorded Nigeria’s highest headline inflation rate at 23.68 percent in August 2026, significantly above the national inflation rate of 15.39 percent, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Zamfara followed with an annual inflation rate of 22.56 percent, while Enugu recorded 22.06 percent, placing the three states at the top of Nigeria’s inflation table during the month.

The figures show that although inflation moderated at the national level in August, the movement in consumer prices differed substantially across states.

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 15.39 percent in August from 15.43 percent in July, while the Consumer Price Index increased to 146.3 from 145.3 in the preceding month.

On a month-on-month basis, national inflation slowed more sharply to 0.71 percent from 1.57 percent in July, indicating that average prices continued to rise in August but at a slower pace.

While Lagos had the highest annual headline inflation, the state did not record the largest month-on-month increase.

Rivers recorded the highest monthly inflation rate at 6.92 percent, followed by Osun at 5.61 percent and Kano at 5.59 percent.

At the opposite end, Anambra recorded a month-on-month inflation rate of -8.83 percent, followed by Bauchi at -7.13 percent and Borno at -7.09 percent.

The wide variation shows that the inflation experienced across individual states can differ substantially from the national average.

Lagos’ 23.68 percent annual inflation rate was 8.29 percentage points above the national rate of 15.39 percent.

It was also sharply higher than states at the bottom of the inflation table.

Sokoto recorded Nigeria’s lowest year-on-year headline inflation rate at 2.11 percent, followed by Kebbi at 3.72 percent and Jigawa at 3.81 percent.

This left a 21.57-percentage-point gap between Lagos, with the highest annual rate, and Sokoto, with the lowest.

However, the NBS cautioned that state inflation rates should not be interpreted as direct comparisons of living costs between states.

The statistical agency explained that the Consumer Price Index is weighted according to household consumption expenditure patterns, which vary across states and locations.

Consequently, the weight assigned to a particular food or non-food item can differ from one state to another, making direct interstate comparisons of consumption baskets potentially misleading.

The broader national data showed that food remained the biggest contributor to inflation in August.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 6.16 percentage points to headline inflation, while restaurants and accommodation services contributed 1.99 points.

Transport accounted for another 1.64 percentage points, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels contributed 1.30 points. Education and health contributed 0.95 and 0.93 percentage points, respectively.

Food inflation nationally stood at 19.57 percent year-on-year in August, compared with 25.30 percent in August 2025.

Monthly food inflation also moderated substantially to 1.02 percent from 5.56 percent in July, indicating a significant slowdown in the pace at which average food prices increased during the month.

The NBS attributed the moderation in monthly food inflation mainly to 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.

Despite the broader national moderation, Lagos’ position at the top of the state inflation table shows that price pressures remained considerably stronger in some parts of the country in August.

The state-level data also underline an important distinction in the August inflation report: Nigeria’s national inflation rate may be easing, but the extent of that improvement remains uneven across states, with Lagos, Zamfara and Enugu recording annual price increases substantially above the national average.