The National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday announced Nigeria’s headline inflation rate edged up to 24.23 per cent in March 2025 while stating the increase in its consumer price index (CPI) for March.
The new rate indicates an increased move from the 23.18 per cent reported in February.
It also signals a return to levels (24.48 per cent) recorded at the beginning of the year following the CPI rebasing.
“In March 2025, the Headline inflation rate rose to 24.23% relative to the February 2025 headline inflation rate of 23.18%,” the bureau said.
“Looking at the movement, the March 2025 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.05% compared to the February 2025 Headline inflation rate,” the NBS said.
New Daily Prime had reported that the World Bank Group had advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sustain efforts to tackle inflation, as Nigeria’s inflation rose to 34.8 per cent in December — up from 33.6 per cent in November.
Senior economist for Nigeria at World Bank Group, Sameer Matta, said this at the launch of the 2025 macroeconomic outlook of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) weekend.
Matta said during a panel session at the event that the CBN must focus on taming inflation.
The economist said, “I think what is critical in terms of inflation is to stay the course. I think that the central bank needs to continue to be focused on making sure that inflation is under control.
“Part of it is related to the supply side. What can be done to improve the yield on the agriculture side? What can be done to improve the link between rural and urban areas?
“There is the question of what can be done on the trade policy side. One would be to increase production locally, but that would take time.
“One of the things that can be done on the trade policy side is to think through which sectors could be targeted to allow some tariffs to be adjusted.”
Matta said the cost of not doing reforms is 2 per cent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) for fuel subsidy and 2 per cent of GDP for foreign exchange (FX) subsidy.
“That’s five per cent of GDP, and that is extremely high,” he said.
“I would liken these reforms to someone with a hard medical condition who had to make tough choices.
“Let’s not forget that at some point in Nigeria, the debt service to revenue was 100 per cent; now, the good news is that we are around 50 per cent, and that is a big decline.
“The cost of reforms comes mainly from high inflation, and in the case of Nigeria specifically, food inflation is impacted by FX and the fact that lots of agricultural products are impacted by the price of petrol.
“That means the impact of these reforms is being felt by the most vulnerable.
“It is very important that the government continues on the reforms on social protection but also accelerates the roll-out of these cash transfers. It is more important to finance them over the future.
“It will be very important to continue to encourage the authorities to scale up and accelerate these interventions, which are time-bound and targeted at those who are really impacted and done through a digital way to avoid any potential misuse in the future.”
