Ben Akabueze, the director-general of the Budget office says Nigeria may be heading towards its first recession since 2016.
Akabueze made the comment on Thursday during a media parley.
Recall that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product fell by 6.10% in Q2 2020 represents a drop of 8.22% points when compared to Q2 2019 (2.12%), and 7.97% points decline when compared to Q1 2020 (1.87%).
The significant fall in Nigeria’s GDP numbers reflects the negative impacts of the disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic and crash in oil prices on the Nigerian economy.
Nigeria’s biggest revenue earner, oil sector, recorded 6.63% (year-on-year) contraction in Q2 2020, indicating a decrease of –13.80% points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
A back to back negative GDP growth per quarter would be Nigeria’s second recession since 2016. The DG said, “Because of the twin effect of COVID-19 pandemic and the drop in oil price, subsequently that it is expected that Q3 will be negative and the country might fall into recession.”
