The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has removed outdated consumption items that no longer reflect how Nigerians live and spend, following a long-overdue rebasing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Speaking at a virtual stakeholder engagement on the December 2025 inflation figure, organised in collaboration with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of NBS, Mr Adeyemi Adeniran, said the overhaul was necessary to ensure inflation measurement reflects present-day realities.
“We were still tracking inflation with a basket built around a 2009 lifestyle,” Adeniran said. “After 15 years, that basket could no longer tell the true story of prices in Nigeria. This rebasing allows inflation data to reflect what people actually consume today.”
The CPI rebasing, completed in 2025 with 2024 adopted as the new base year, marks Nigeria’s first such exercise in 15 years, far exceeding the five-year cycle recommended by international standards. NBS said the long delay meant inflation figures were increasingly influenced by obsolete items and distorted price movements.
As part of the exercise, a nationwide household expenditure survey conducted in 2023 and 2024 across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory revealed that Nigerians no longer consume 201 items previously included in the CPI basket.
Director of Price Statistics at NBS, Dr Ayo Anthony, said the items were removed strictly based on survey evidence.
“It is not NBS that woke up and removed items. People did not report spending on them for 12 months,” Anthony said.
Among the items dropped from the inflation basket are black-and-white televisions, Nokia 3310 phones, and old Motorola handsets. According to NBS, these products no longer reflect current spending patterns and should not influence inflation data.
At the same time, 404 new products commonly consumed by Nigerians were added, expanding the CPI basket to 934 items from about 740 previously. The bureau said the expanded basket better captures modern consumption habits, including new technologies and evolving household needs.
Adeniran acknowledged that the rebasing comes with technical challenges, particularly the choice of December 2024 as the new reference period. He explained that this could create an artificial spike in December 2025 inflation figures due to base effects.
“If we publish the figure the old way, it will show a sharp rise that is purely arithmetic,” he said, adding that NBS has applied international best practices to normalise the data and avoid misinterpretation.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Dr Tayo Aduloju, welcomed the rebasing, noting that credible and up-to-date data is essential as Nigeria enters a consolidation phase of economic reforms.
“When consumption habits change, statistics must change with them,” Aduloju said. “This new look at inflation data is critical for sound policymaking and investor confidence.”
