Top 10 States With Highest Cost of Food As Bread, Fish, Eggs, Others Get More Expensive

• Nigeria's inflation rate, which measures the cost of goods and services, rose to the highest level in over 18 years in October 2023
• Soaring prices of bread, fish, eggs, and other essential food items were the driving factors behind the rising inflation
• A breakdown of the ten states with the highest food inflation has been revealed as Nigerians get poorer

Life is getting tougher for Nigerian households, and it is a daily struggle to feed across the country.

The situation is even worse for residents of 10 states amid soaring prices of essential food items in 10 consecutive months of 2023.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, showed that the food inflation rate in October 2023 was 31.52% on a year-on-year basis.

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This is 7.80% points higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2022 (23.72%).

Food inflation

Increase in bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam, and other tubers, fish, fruit, meat, vegetables, milk, cheese, and eggs caused the rise in food inflation year-on-year.

The food inflation rate in October 2023 was 1.91% on a month-on-month basis, Punch reports.

The average annual food inflation rate for the twelve months ending October 2023 over the previous twelve-month average was 26.33%.

This was a 6.50% points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2022 (19.83%).

Top 10 states with highest food inflation rate October 2023

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Expert reacts

Speaking on the inflation figure, Muda Yusuf, the chief executive officer of the Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), said the critical inflation drivers, including food items, are not receding.

He again called on the government to introduce policies to drive local production.

His words:

"Key drivers of inflation have not really abated, that is, factors of the foreign exchange rate depreciation; factor of increasing energy cost; increasing transportation cost and also the factor of challenges of trade, that is, clearing cargoes at the ports and high import tariffs, rising inflation will remain a challenge.

"It will be very difficult to tame inflation if we do not fix power, logistics and forex."

Legit.ng weekly price check: Rice sellers groan as bag sells for N32,000 in popular Lagos market

Meanwhile, in another report, Legit.ng showed the rise and fall of food prices across Lagos market.

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The report also chronicled the plights of buyers and traders.

Source: Legit.ng