Nigeria’s Economy to Rebound in 2021, World Bank Predicts 1.1 Percent Growth Rate

The World Bank has said Africa’s largest economy Nigeria will grow by 1.1 percent in 2021 despite the present economic recession.

The world’s leading multilateral financial institution disclosed this in its January 2021 Global Economic Prospect report titled ‘Global economy to expand by four per cent in 2021; vaccine deployment and investment key to sustaining the recovery’.

The report said, “Growth in Nigeria is expected to resume at 1.1 per cent in 2021.

“Activity is nevertheless anticipated to be dampened by low oil prices, OPEC quotas, falling public investment due to weak government revenues, constrained private investment due to firm failures, and subdued foreign investor confidence.”

Nigeria plunged into its worse economic recession in almost 40 years in 2020 following two subsequent contractions in the second and third quarters of the year.

Africa’s largest economy is estimated to contract by 4.1 percent in 2020 largely due to the devastating effect of COVID-19 on economic activity. While Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy is predicted to shrink by 3.7 percent in 2020 with per capita income expected to drop by 6.1 percent in the same year.

Economic activities in South Africa to expand by 3.3 percent in 2021. However, the global economy is expected to grow by 4 percent in the same year if the COVID-19 vaccine becomes effective and widely available.

The report stated that “The global economy is expected to expand four per cent in 2021, assuming an initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout becomes widespread throughout the year.

“A recovery, however, will likely be subdued, unless policy makers move decisively to tame the pandemic and implement investment-enhancing reforms.”