Nigerians living in rural areas have been confronted with an unprecedented rise in the price of foodstuff which has risen by almost 100% over the last three years.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for April 2024 published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the Rural CPI for food almost doubled the figures obtained over the past three years.
The steady increase in the inflation rate persists despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) increment of the monetary policy rates by 400 and 200 basis points in February and March respectively and aimed to tighten liquidity.
According to analysts at Nairametrics, the overall increase in the average food prices for rural Nigerians from April 2021 to April 2024, was 99.22%.
The report defines the CPI as a measure of the average change in the cost of goods and services consumed by people over a period of time with a base year of November 2009 (100).
An analysis of the data showed that the rural CPI for food from March 2021 to April 2024, revealed a significant jump. The food CPI stood at 419.7 as of March 2021 and increased marginally to 423.7 in April 2021.
The food CPI increased slightly to 488.4 by March 2022, with a further climb to 497.9 in April 2022. This increment indicated a 17.50% rise year-on-year (Y-O-Y), and a month-on-month (M-O-M) rise of 1.94%.
The spiralling inflation continued as the rural food CPI escalated to 601.4 in March 2023 and reached 613.2 in April 2023, with Y-O-Y inflation at 23.17% and M-O-M inflation at 1.97%.
The Food inflation rate in April 2024 was 40.53% on a year-on-year basis, and 15.92% points higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2023 (24.61%).
Further analysis of the data showed the food inflation figures across several Nigerian states.
In Kogi state, food inflation value on a Year-on-Year basis was highest at 48.62% in April 2024.
Kwara (46.73%), Ondo (45.87%), while Adamawa (33.61%), Bauchi (33.85%) and Nasarawa (34.03%), recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on Year-on-Year basis.
On a Month-on-Month basis, Lagos recorded the highest food inflation at 4.74% in April 2024. Edo (4.06%), and Yobe (3.99%), while Kano (0.47%), Adamawa (0.98%) and Zamfara (1.50%) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation.