Despite Nigeria recording its seventh consecutive month of disinflation, economists and financial analysts have raised concerns that the easing inflation trend has brought little or no relief to Nigerians and households already overwhelmed by high living costs and economic hardship.<\/p>\n
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that headline inflation slowed to 16.05 per cent in October 2025, down from 18.02 per cent in September, one of the strongest single-month declines this year.<\/p>\n
Food inflation also moderated to 13.12 per cent, compared to 16.9 per cent in the previous month.<\/p>\n
But economists and analysts insist the improved figures do not reflect the economic reality facing millions of Nigerians.<\/p>\n
\u2018Disinflation without welfare gains \u2014CPPE<\/p>\n
The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, said the gains from the latest figures have not translated into real cost-of-living relief because price pressures remain elevated across essential sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cInflationary pressures remain elevated in critical household sectors\u2014including food, transportation, housing, utilities, education, and health\u2014which jointly account for 84 percent of inflation,\u201d Yusuf noted.<\/p>\n
He attributed the limited impact of disinflation to persistent structural challenges such as high logistics costs, energy constraints, insecurity in food-producing regions and climate-related disruptions that continue to suppress supply.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cthe full welfare benefits are yet to be sufficiently felt by households due to persistent structural constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yusuf advised that deeper and sustained reforms across key sectors\u2014supported by coordinated monetary, fiscal and structural policies\u2014are necessary to turn statistical improvements into real economic progress.<\/p>\n
\u2018NBS Inflation Figures Are Flawed\u2019 \u2014 Former CIBN President, Okechukwu<\/p>\n
In an interview with DAILY POST, Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu, former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), said the October inflation report is detached from the real-life experience of Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Unegbu insisted the country\u2019s true inflation rate is significantly higher than official figures suggest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inflation figure by the National Bureau of Statistics is flawed because it does not reflect reality. In real terms, the country\u2019s inflation is as high as 29 percent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He argued that the persistent rise in the cost of food, rent, transportation, fuel, and other essentials shows that the declining inflation rate \u201cdoes not make sense\u201d to the average Nigerian.<\/p>\n
Why Nigerians Still Feel No Relief \u2014 Oyedokun<\/p>\n
An economist and a university don, Prof Godwin Oyedokun, said most Nigerians feel no impact from the inflation slowdown because the structural drivers of the cost-of-living crisis remain intact.<\/p>\n
He outlined six reasons why Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of inflation:<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices are still rising\u2014 just more slowly- A drop in inflation does not mean prices are falling. Nigerians are still paying historically high amounts for food, transport, energy and rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncomes remain stagnant- Wages, pensions and SME earnings have failed to keep up with inflation for two years, weakening purchasing power.<\/p>\n
\u201cKey cost drivers remain unresolved- Exchange-rate volatility, high energy costs, logistics inefficiencies, insecurity in food belts and elevated interest rates continue to fuel price increases.<\/p>\n
Inflation expectations are still high- Businesses expect prices to rise further and therefore adjust prices upward in advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cState-to-state variations distort relief- Some states still record much higher food and transportation inflation than the national average.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoverty levels overshadow economic data- With high unemployment and widespread poverty, even a slowdown in inflation does little to improve household welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof. Oyedokun concluded that \u201cNigerians have yet to feel any relief because the level of prices\u2014 not just the rate of change\u2014 remains painfully high, and the structural conditions driving hardship persist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite Nigeria recording its seventh consecutive month of disinflation, economists and financial analysts have raised concerns that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,1431,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-271813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-inflation","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}