Residents of Rivers, Abia worst hit as Russia war drives food inflation

Nigeria’s food inflation rose to an 8-month high as the effect of Russia and Ukraine’s war 9,475 kilometres away continued to rake havoc in Nigerian homes.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report published on Monday, inflation in the country in May rose to 17.71% while, food inflation touched 19.50 per cent.

May food inflation is a considerable increase when compared to 18.37 percent in the previous month.

NBS in its report noted that the rise in the food index was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products, potatoes, yam, and other tubers, wine, fish, meat, and oils.

Cereals is one of Nigeria’s main imports from Russia with over US$403.65 million spent on an average, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Read also: Weak Naira, rising food prices drag Nigeria’s inflation rate for April to 16.82%

Wheat which is used to make bread is also a significant item imported from Russia.

In the third quarter of 2021, over N86 billions of durum wheat, around 205.6 million U.S. dollars, were imported into Nigeria from Russia.

States worst hit by food inflation

NBS data shows that food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (22.79%), Akwa Ibom (22.47%) and Kwara (22.21%).

While Kaduna (16.46%), Anambra (16.54%) and

Jigawa (16.91%) recorded the slowest rise in year-on-year food inflation.

On a month-on-month basis, however, in May 2022 food inflation was highest in Rivers (3.65%), Abia (3.31%), and Ogun (3.23%), while Yobe (0.01%), Osun (0.76%), and Jigawa (0.81%) recorded the slowest rise on month-on-month inflation.

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