Ekeomah Atuonwu
Nigeria’s inflation rate increased in February after falling in January, as the continent’s most populous country battles gasoline shortages that have pushed prices up.
The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 15.70 percent between February 2021 and February 2022, up from 15.60 percent in January, according to the country’s statistics office.
The Consumer Price Index, as assessed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), fell 1.63 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in February 2021, according to the NBS (17.33 per cent).
NBS said that rises in the prices of bread and cereals, food items, potatoes, yam and other tubers, oils and fats, and fruit contributed to the rise in the food index.
“The percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12 months period ending February 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.73 per cent, showing 0.14 per cent point from 16.87 per cent recorded in January 2022,” the stats office disclosed in its report.
Nigeria has faced fuel shortages since February after importing substandard fuel which resulted in weeks of severe scarcity and long queues at filling stations. The shortage has seen transport costs rise thus affecting goods and commodities.
Without functional refineries, Africa’s largest oil producer relies almost entirely on imported fuel.
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