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Nigeria will soon come out of recession, Minister assures Nigerians

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The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has assured Nigerians that the economic recession being experienced by Nigeria would be over by first quarter of 2021.

The Minister gave this assurance at the ongoing 26th Nigerian Economic Summit organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics the  GDP slided by 3.62 per cent in Q3 and 6.10 per cent in Q2,

The Minister cited the advent of the COVID-19 as a major factor that led to the recession, adding that Nigeria is not the only country slided into recession.

“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,” she said.

“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.”

Ahmed added, “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.”