Inflation hits 17 month high following border closure

Following the border closure, Nigeria’s inflation rate has hit a 17 month high and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that the rise in inflation will drop in another three to four months.

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, told Channels Television on Tuesday that the effect of border closure cannot be ruled out.

The latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed inflation figures at a 17-month high, rise to 11.61% in October.

Emefiele said:

“Inflation goes up from 11.22 to 11.61 between September and October, and mainly it’s because of the border closure.

“I am not going to entirely disagree, because of border closure that has resulted in some supply shortages because of goods that are being dumped into the country.

“I don’t like the fact that prices went up momentarily from September and October, but the beneficiaries are Nigerians and companies where we have seen a situation where people have jobs, farmers who produce poultry and those benefiting from import of cars legitimately.

“In as much as I do not like the fact that inflationary pressures are coming up right now, I’m also saying that it will moderate and very quickly, maximum of another 3 to 4 months aggressively downwards.”