NIGERIA RECORDS FASTEST GDP GROWTH IN DECADE

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By Oduola F.A.

Nigeria’s economy experienced its fastest growth in a decade last year, according to the World Bank, which credited government reforms for the boost. However, it cautioned that inflation remains elevated.

“Real GDP grew by 4.6 percent year-on-year in Q4 2024, bringing the full-year growth for 2024 to 3.4 percent, the highest since 2014 (excluding the 2021-2022 COVID-19 rebound),” the bank stated in a report released in Abuja on Monday.

It said the acceleration in gross domestic product (GDP) growth was driven mainly by a continued oil and gas sector recovery and strong growth in the tech and finance industries.

Growth in the agriculture sector was slow, however, growing at only 1.2 percent last year due to insecurity in the country’s crop-growing Middle Belt and high input costs.

The bank forecasts Nigeria’s economy to expand at “mildly higher” rate of 3.7 percent this year.

Inflation, which the bank said has remained “high and sticky”, is expected to fall to an average of 22.1 percent in 2025, said the bank’s latest edition of Nigeria Development Update (NDU).

“Nigeria has made impressive strides to restore macroeconomic stability,” Taimur Samad, acting World Bank country director for Nigeria, said in a statement.

After coming to office in May 2023 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu embarked on a deep economic reform programme, which the government and international financial institutions said was necessary to right the public finances of the continent’s most populous country.

But those measures have come at a cost for many ordinary Nigerians, who are facing the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.