Bauchi, Kogi, Oyo Top List of 10 Most Expensive States to Live in Nigeria as Inflation Surges

• Nigeria's inflation rate for June 2024 has soared to 34.19%, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics said.
• The report also listed the states with the highest food inflation and standard of living for the period under review
• According to the report, Bauch, Kogi, and Oyo emerged as the country's most expensive places to live

Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment, and the economy for over a decade.

Nigeria’s headline inflation for June 2024 surged to 34.19%, per National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.

The NBS data disclosed that the cost of living in Nigeria has continued to climb, with June 2024 Consumer Price Index (CPI) data showing a continuous rise in inflation rates anchored on high food prices.

Nigeria’s food inflation soars

According to the NBS report, food inflation continues to be arrowhead, driving inflation to an all-time high.

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The data puts food inflation at 40.87%, which has caused a spike in all other items across states in Nigeria.

A previous report by Legit.ng on the June inflation detailed the top 10 states with the most inflation.

However, the NBS report disclosed Nigeria’s most expensive places to live in June 2024.

Lagos 

The state dropped off the list for two months consecutively this year, but it is now staging a comeback as the 10th most expensive state in Nigeria.

The state's all-item inflation rate for June 2024 was 36.37%, lower than the previous month's 37.39%.

Jigawa 

Jigawa, which occupied the sixth place in last month’s list, now ranks as Nigeria’s 9th most expensive state to live with an all-item inflation rate of 36.42% in June 2024, showing a marginal decline from the 37.34% it recorded in May 2024.

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Osun 

Osun dropped to eighth place in June from fourth place in May. Its all-item inflation rate was 36.58% for June 2024, a marginal decline from the May rate of 37.45%.

Kwara 

The state occupied the 10th position in May 2024. It is now ranked as the seventh most expensive state, with an all-item inflation rate of 36.64% in June 2024, up from the 36.19% recorded in May.

Abia 

Abia State's all-item inflation rate was 37.04% in June 2024, a slight increase from May’s figure of 36.75%.

Ondo 

As the debutant state on the list, Ondo’s inflation rate for June 2024 rose to 37.05% from 35.61% in May.

Rivers 

Another debutant on the list, Rivers saw its all-item inflation rate soar to 37.20% in June 2024 from 36.00% in May 2024.

Oyo 

Oyo’s inflation rate increased to 39.14% in June from 37.72% in May.

Kogi 

Previously Nigeria’s most expensive state, Kogi, has dropped to second place, with an inflation rate of 39.91% in June 2024, down from 39.38% in June.

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Bauchi 

For the second time, Bauchi tops the list with an all-item inflation rate of 43.95% for June 2024, up from 42.30% in May. 

Interestingly, Bauchi's food inflation rate is lower than that of other states, at 34.78%, down from 34.35%. This disparity suggests that while general prices are high, food prices have been relatively more stable in Bauchi. 

Analysts urge FG to tame food inflation

Analysts have asked the Nigerian government to expedite action to tame food inflation, which is the country's arrowhead of inflation.

Ishaya Ibrahim, economist and brand analyst, said that if the country could get basic food right and reduce it to the bare minimum, Nigerians’ living standards would be significantly enhanced.

“Food is one of the three fundamental needs of humans, and if that need is hard to meet, it is the government's responsibility to ensure that its citizens are well-fed.

“I believe the current policy of the Nigerian government to crash food prices by embarking on massive importation, would push food inflation down,” he said.

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10 most expensive states to live in May 2024

Legit.ng earlier reported that a new report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) identified the 10 most expensive states to reside in Nigeria based on inflation.

In its consumer price index report, the NBS said the headline inflation rate, which measures the price changes of goods and services in the country, rose to 33.69%.

April 2024 inflation rate is 11.47% points higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2023, which was 22.22%.

Proofread by Kola Muhammed, journalist and copyeditor at Legit.ng

Source: Legit.ng