WED. 05 APRIL 2023-theGBJournal | World Bank in its latest ‘’Africa’s Pulse’’ report has cut Nigeria’s growth forecast for 2023 to 2.8 percent, down from 3.3 percent in 2022.
The Bank however, expects growth to accelerate slightly to an average annual rate of 3 percent in 2024–25.
‘’This translates into growth per capita of 0.2 percent in 2023 and 0.4 percent in 2024–25, which is insufficient to reduce extreme poverty in the country.’’
The World Bank notes that growth will continue to be driven by services, trade, construction, manufacturing, and agriculture, and forecast oil production to remain subdued in 2023, because of inefficiencies and insecurity, and recover slightly in 2024– 25.
On the production side, growth in 2023 will be supported by industry (with growth of 5.6 percent) with the mega-refinery project.
Meanwhile, the Bank projected economic activity in the West and Central Africa (AFW) subregion excluding Nigeria to grow at 4.2 percent in 2023, rising to 5.3 percent in 2024–25. Growth in 2023 and 2024 is predicted to lose 0.7 and 0.2 percentage point, respectively, from the October 2022 forecasts.
The downward revision is accounted for by the still high rates of inflation, tightening monetary and fiscal policies, continued conflict in the Sahel region, and slowdown of the global economy.
The expansion of the AFW subregion in 2023 (3.4 percent) is higher than that of its counterpart, Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE)- (3.0 percent).
Twitter-@theGBJournal|Facebook-the Government and Business Journal|email:gbj@govbusinessjournal.ng| govandbusinessj@gmail.com
