Ranked DataFood prices · May 2026
What food costs in Nigeria, by the official numbers.
Every month the National Bureau of Statistics surveys the retail prices of staple foods across Nigeria and publishes the Selected Food Prices Watch. Ranked republishes the NBS figures verbatim — the prices below, and every percentage beside them, are the NBS’s own numbers from the May 2026 release. We add nothing and estimate nothing.
Source: the NBS Selected Food Prices Watch (May 2026) (released late June 2026 on the NBS National Data Archive) · every figure verified against the official NBS tables on 3 August 2026
The short answer
Per the NBS Selected Food Prices Watch for May 2026, the national average price of 1kg of local rice was ₦1,905.43, 1kg of brown beans was ₦1,344.93, and 1kg of white garri was ₦813.24. The month’s big mover was fresh tomatoes: ₦1,560.56 per kg, up 32.48% in one month by the NBS’s own count.
Rice local (1kg)
₦1,905.43
-9.06% vs May 2025
Garri white (1kg)
₦813.24
-39.39% vs May 2025
Eggs (crate of 30)
₦6,149.18
+0.10% vs April
Biggest riser: tomatoes, fresh
+32.48%
month-on-month
National average prices · May 2026
Exactly as published in the NBS tables. “MoM” and “YoY” are the NBS’s own month-on-month (vs April 2026) and year-on-year (vs May 2025) percentage changes — not our arithmetic. A dash means we have not verified that cell against the official file, so we do not print it.
| Item | Unit | Avg price (May 2026) | MoM | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice local, short-grained | 1kg | ₦1,905.43 | +0.63% | -9.06% |
| Rice imported, long-grained | 1kg | ₦2,245.70 | +0.54% | -13.78% |
| Beans brown | 1kg | ₦1,344.93 | +0.45% | -43.61% |
| Garri white | 1kg | ₦813.24 | +0.53% | -39.39% |
| Yam tuber | 1kg | ₦2,347.09 | +5.80% | -1.19% |
| Tomatoes, fresh | 1kg | ₦1,560.56 | +32.48% | +12.05% |
| Onions, fresh | 1kg | ₦1,180.01 | +1.34% | -26.59% |
| Palm oil | 75cl | ₦2,396.62 | +0.01% | -3.17% |
| Agric hen eggs | crate of 30 | ₦6,149.18 | +0.10% | -1.83% |
| Beef, boneless | 1kg | ₦7,171.41 | +3.63% | +7.63% |
Rising prices are shown red, falling prices green (a falling food price is good news for the buyer). For items where the NBS table lists state extremes we verified: brown beans ranged from ₦760.00 (Taraba) to ₦1,941.78 (Oyo); fresh tomatoes from ₦1,017.00 (Ekiti) to ₦1,974.81 (Lagos); a crate of eggs from ₦5,637.94 (Niger) to ₦7,020.00 (Taraba).
Methodology
The numbers, defined
- National average price
- The NBS collects retail prices of selected food items across Nigerian states each month and publishes the national average per item, alongside the highest and lowest state averages and breakdowns by geopolitical zone. The figures on this page are those published national averages, transcribed from the official XLSX tables in the May 2026 release ZIP.
- MoM / YoY change
- The month-on-month and year-on-year percentage changes as computed and published by the NBS itself. We reproduce them rather than recomputing, so this page always says exactly what the bureau said.
- Why your market may differ
- A national average flattens enormous state-level spread — in May 2026, 1kg of fresh tomatoes averaged ₦1,974.81 in Lagos but ₦1,017.00 in Ekiti, nearly a 2× gap for the same item in the same month. Use these figures as a benchmark, not a price list, and compare on-the-ground options in Ranked’s directory of markets and supermarkets near you.
- What Ranked does not do
- Ranked republishes NBS figures verbatim and links the primary release — we do not survey prices ourselves, adjust for inflation, or fill gaps with estimates. A widely syndicated press error illustrates why: several outlets ran ₦808.96 as May’s white garri price, but the official table shows that is April’s figure — May’s is ₦813.24. We publish from the file, not the paraphrase.
Cadence: the NBS publishes the Selected Food Prices Watch monthly, roughly four weeks after the reference month ends (the May 2026 edition was released late June 2026); this page is refreshed each NBS release. The June 2026 edition, scheduled for 29 July 2026 on the NBS advance release calendar, had not yet been posted to the archive when we last checked on 3 August 2026 — occasional multi-month combined releases follow such slips. For petrol rather than food, see the petrol price tracker; for what moving around costs, see transport fares.