Minister Says Nigeria Will Soon Exit Recession

Posted by African Examiner African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Monday, November 23rd, 2020

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, says that Nigeria will be out of the recession soon.

African Examiner reports that Nigeria has slipped into recession over the weekend, the worst in over three decades.

Ahmed, speaking at the ongoing 26th Nigerian Economic Summit organized by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, on Monday, disclosed that Nigeria will be out from recession either in the fourth quarter of 2020 or by the first quarter of 2021.

The minister stated that the recession was as a result of the global Coronavirus pandemic as other economies in the world are also in recession.

She said: “Let me remind us that before the impact of COVID-19, the Nigerian economy was experiencing sustained growth, which had been improving quarter by quarter until the second quarter of 2020, when the impact of the COVID-19 was felt.

Nigeria is not alone in this, but I will say that Nigeria has outperformed all of these economies in terms of the record of a negative growth.

While the economy has entered into recession in the third quarter, the trend of the growth suggests that this will be a short-lived recession, and indeed by the fourth or, at worst, the first quarter of 2021, the country will exit recession.

Our expectation of a quick exit, which will be historically fast, is anchored on the several complementary fiscal, real sector and monetary interventions that have been proactively introduced by government to forestall a far worse decline of the economy and alleviate the negative consequences of the pandemic.”