Every food item tracked has at least doubled in price since May 2023

  • Every comparable food item tracked is now at least twice as expensive as it was in May 2023.
  • Nearly half of the selected food items have more than tripled in price since the month before fuel subsidy removal.
  • Unripe plantain recorded the steepest increase, rising by 469% between May 2023 and April 2026.
  • Ripe plantain, yam tuber, and fresh tilapia also saw extreme increases of more than 300%.
  • Even the slowest-rising staples, including frozen chicken, beans, gari, and maize, still more than doubled in price.

Three years on from fuel subsidy removal, this is what happened to food in Nigeria.

Of the staples we could compare directly, not one got cheaper. Every item is at least double its May 2023 price — the last full month before the policy hit. Nearly half have tripled. Plantain has climbed almost six-fold; yam nearly five. And the items that held up best — gari, beans, maize — still doubled.

For households, feeding a family now costs at least twice what it did.

Source:

National Bureau of Statistics; Intelpoint calculations

Period:

May 2023-April 2026
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