Serious Inflation: Man Compares Supermarket Receipt in 2020 with 2025
- A Nigerian X user compared grocery prices from 2020 and 2026 using the same supermarket receipt
- Prices of common food items such as cereals and oats have increased several times over
- Many Nigerians say salary increases have not matched rising inflation and food costs
Oluwatobi Odeyinka is a business editor at Legit.ng, covering energy, the money market, technology and macroeconomic trends in Nigeria.
A social media post by a Nigerian X user has drawn renewed attention to the impact of Nigeria’s prolonged inflation crisis on household spending.
In his post, Olabode Ifeanyi, who is based in Lagos, explained that he attempted a personal experiment by buying the same grocery items listed on a supermarket receipt from 2020. According to him, the items, which cost N25,225 at a Lekki supermarket five years ago, now sell for N147,050 in 2026, representing a 582% increase.
Source: Twitter
Sharing his findings, Ifeanyi said the comparison was aimed at highlighting how rising prices have affected living standards. He noted that anyone whose income has not increased by a similar margin since 2020 has effectively become poorer.
“Last night I decided to buy every single item on this receipt from 2020. To find out how bad things really are. If your salary in 2020 has not increased by 600 per cent, you are poorer,” he wrote.
The receipts showed sharp increases in the prices of everyday food items. A 350-gram box of Nasco cornflakes rose from N575 in 2020 to N3,200 in 2025, while a 600-gram pack of Golden Morn increased from N670 to N3,850. Similarly, a 420-gram container of Quaker oats jumped from N530 to N3,250 over the same period.
The post sparked widespread reactions on X, with many Nigerians sharing similar experiences of rising costs. Several users said that even where salaries had increased, the gains were insufficient to keep up with inflation, leading to reduced purchasing power.
“My salary has increased maybe 1.5 times since 2020. I used to think I was doing okay. This receipt just showed me I’ve been I am now poorer,” an X user commented.
Nigerians endure post-COVID inflation crisis
Nigeria’s inflation challenges have intensified over the past five years. In 2020, the inflation rate stood at 13.25% amid the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, while food inflation was recorded at 16%, driven by insecurity in farming areas and currency pressures.
Inflation rose to 16.95% in 2021 as the naira weakened further, with food prices continuing to climb. By 2022, headline inflation had reached 18.76%, before jumping to 24.53% in 2023.
As of late 2024 and early 2025, food inflation has frequently exceeded 35%, worsening the cost-of-living crisis and making basic nutrition increasingly unaffordable for many Nigerian households.
Source: Twitter
Inflation rate falls
Meanwhile, the inflation rate in Nigeria has been on a downward curve since the beginning of 2025, with headline inflation falling to 15.15% in December.
According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), food inflation has eased to 10.84%.
However, the inflation rates do not reflect living costs, which remain high while incomes lag behind household budgets.
Most expensive states to buy food in Nigeria
Legit.ng earlier reported the list of the most expensive states to buy food based on the latest CPI report of the NBS.
December inflation figures released by the NBS have revealed that Nigerians experienced a slowdown in the rate of price increases across the country.
The states with the highest food inflation rate were: Yobe, Ogun, Abuja, Lagos, Delta, Kano, Kogi, Osun, Rivers and Ekiti.
Source: Legit.ng
