The cost of preparing a pot of jollof rice in Nigeria fell by 11.5 per cent between June and September 2026, but households continue to struggle with high living expenses and limited purchasing power.
SBM Intelligence disclosed this in its third-quarter report, The Pot Cools, but Not Everywhere, published on October 21, 2026.
The firm’s National Average Jollof Index dropped from N29,578 in June to N26,178 in September, its steepest quarterly decline since the index was introduced in July 2016.
However, a recording error involving curry and thyme prices in Ibadan overstated the reduction. After correcting the figures, SBM put the September cost at approximately N27,055, representing an 8.5 per cent decline.
The index tracks 12 ingredients across 13 markets. SBM attributed the fall mainly to lower prices of chicken, vegetable oil, beef, tomatoes and red peppers. Chicken prices recorded a combined reduction of N9,700 across the surveyed markets, while vegetable oil fell by N7,350, beef by N4,100, tomatoes by N2,600 and red peppers by N2,650.
The report linked the changes partly to seasonal harvests and poultry feed costs. The index declined by N2,312 between June and July, N104 in August and N984 in September.
Despite the quarterly drop, the September figure remained 5.8 per cent above the N24,749 recorded a year earlier and approximately 540 per cent higher than the N4,087 recorded when the index began.
Lagos recorded the sharpest decline among the markets highlighted, with costs at Trade Fair and Balogun markets falling from N34,700 in June to N22,350 in September, a reduction of 35.6 per cent.
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Kano recorded a 9.4 per cent decline to N23,400, while Bauchi fell by 4.6 per cent to N30,850. In Abuja, costs dropped by 2.6 per cent to N24,800 at Nyanya market and 4.8 per cent to N27,800 at Wuse II.
Port Harcourt was the only market where the index rose, increasing by 2.6 per cent from N31,200 to N32,000. SBM linked the increase partly to flooding in Rivers State, which disrupted farms and food supplies.
Calabar Municipal and Bayside Mbakpa recorded the highest September costs at N34,600 and N34,500, respectively. Onitsha and Awka recorded the lowest figures at N21,350 each, although SBM classified the South-East data as provisional because of concerns about some rice and beef prices.
The latest decline follows an earlier period of rising costs. In April 2025, SBM reported that the cost of preparing jollof rice had increased by 19.7 per cent between September 2024 and March 2025.
SBM said falling ingredient prices had yet to provide substantial household relief because transportation, rent, school fees and electricity continued to strain incomes. A respondent in Ibadan told researchers that unchanged earnings still made bulk food purchases difficult.
The report put petrol prices in Ibadan at between N1,380 and N1,400 per litre and the cost of transporting a trailer load of goods from Lagos to Kano at about N1.2 million. Informal checkpoint payments of N500 to N1,000 further increased distribution costs.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 14.63 per cent in September 2026 from 15.39 per cent in August, while annual food inflation edged up from 19.57 per cent to 19.59 per cent.
SBM cautioned that the decline in jollof rice costs could be temporary if driven by seasonal supply changes rather than lasting reductions in food production and distribution expenses.