Pressure points
What basic living costs look like
Mixed official periods, labelled on each bar
Economy · Household Pressure·Official NBS public-price and CPI releases
Cost of Living
in Nigeria
2026
This page brings together inflation, food prices, fuel costs, transport fares, and the cost of a healthy diet to answer a simpler question: what does everyday life cost in Nigeria right now?
Quick read
Inflation has cooled.
Living costs have not.
Official data shows some staples are cheaper than a year ago and inflation has slowed materially. But transport, fuel, and the monthly cost of eating a healthy diet still put severe pressure on household budgets.
Headline inflation
15.10%
January 2026 CPI
Petrol national average
₦1,034.76
Per litre · January 2026
Diesel national average
₦1,361.57
Per litre · January 2026
Healthy diet per adult
₦44,220
Monthly estimate · October 2025
Wage share
How the wage benchmark gets eaten up
This is not a full family budget. It is a simple benchmark. The point is that even one or two basic categories can consume most or all of a minimum wage.
Food signals
Some staples are cheaper, but protein still hurts
The food picture is mixed. Beans, garri, and maize are down sharply year-on-year. But many protein items remain expensive, and those are often the foods households cut first under pressure.
Living costs are still high even as inflation cools
Nigeria’s inflation rate is lower than the 2024 peak, but that does not mean living is cheap. Prices can stop rising as fast and still remain painfully high in absolute terms.
Transport and food can each swallow most of a minimum wage
A simple city-bus commute at the December 2025 national average translates to about ₦49,200 a month. A healthy diet for one adult is about ₦44,220 a month. Either one alone consumes most of the ₦70,000 minimum wage.
Some staple foods are cheaper, but the full basket still hurts
Beans, garri, and maize are much cheaper than a year ago. But protein-rich foods, transport, and fuel remain expensive enough that everyday household pressure is still intense.
Plain English
What “cost of living” means here
There is no single official Nigerian number called “cost of living.” So the right way to explain it is to combine the public indicators that shape daily life most directly: food, fuel, transport, and broader inflation.
That is why this page is useful. It is less about one technical metric and more about what household pressure looks like when you put the official numbers side by side.
The result is simple: Nigeria may be past the worst of the inflation spike, but everyday life is still expensive enough that a minimum-wage household has very little breathing room.