Data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, NBS indicates that the country’s economy experienced some growth at the beginning of the year- growing by 1.87% year-in-year in the first three months of 2020.
The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and a global lockdown has however, led to the stalling of commercial activities and a fall in oil prices.
The growth is the lowest recorded in less than two years, following an updated unemployment data of 13 million .
Despite Nigeria’s current crude oil production capacity being 2.07 million barrels a day, the lack of sales and OPEC+ production cuts. As a result, the Nigerian government is predicting that it’s economy will contract by 8.7% in 2020.
The World Bank projects that Nigeria’s impending recession will be more pronounced than that of 2016. Potentially, it could bring Africa’s largest economy to its knees. Early predictions indicate that it could be the worst recession in forty years.