Rewane tackles NBS on inflation data

The managing director of Financial Derivatives Company, Bismarck Rewane  has tackled National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) latest report on consumer price index (CPI), stressing that some food-producing states are experiencing high inflation rates, while major consuming states have significantly lower rates.

NBS  had disclosed that Nigeria’s CPI  report used in measuring  inflation rate that dropped to 23.71 per cent in April 2025 down from 24.23 per cent in March 2025

According to him, NBS result shows that some food-producing states are experiencing high inflation rates, while major consuming states have significantly lower rates.

He said, “Inflation was highest in three states; Benue state at 51 per cent, Ekiti state at 34 per cent, and Kebbi state at 33 per cent; these are the food-producing states,” he said.

“While they were lowest in consuming states. Ebonyi state has 7.19 per cent, Adamawa state had 9.52 per cent, and Ogun state had 9.91 per cent.

“How come the states that are producing the food, and the food is stranded there at higher prices, while the states that are consuming the foodstuff are having low rates? What is happening here?

“Are those numbers credible? And if they are not, then what are we seeing here? Are we seeing some distortion in the methodology?

“It is almost inconceivable that where you have the food, the prices are high, and where you are consuming the food, the prices are low. The difference between Benue state and Ogun state, for example, is almost 43 percent difference in inflation. What has happened?”

Rewane also questioned the sustainability of recent declines in food prices, adding that the cost of staples like rice remains volatile.

“Food prices come down, yes, we have seen some movement in some food prices, but are they sustainable? We’ve seen the price of rice and it’s gone all over the place,” he said.

“Rice dropped, one, because of imports. Two, because of the rumour that there’s poison rice, so people are not buying the rice. But we have not seen a massive shift to the substitutes for rice yet, so that is something that needs to be looked at.

“When you look at the food basket, you find that the price of tomatoes went up by 107 per cent because of tomato ebola, while the price of dairy actually stayed a little bit stable, so those are the things that we’re looking at.

“When you look at inflation, you have to begin to look at what causes inflation to decline. Is it a weak exchange rate that leads to inflation, or is it inflation that leads to a weak exchange rate?”