The Report: Nigeria 2023

Nigeria’s GDP Grew 3.6% in 2021, and 3.3% in 2022, After Contracting 1.8% in 2020

Nigeria’s global strategic importance derives from its position as having both Africa’s largest population and economy, a reality undergirded by the entrepreneurial drive of its young population.

Despite the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, aggressive intervention programmes by the Central Bank of Nigeria and support from international partners fuelled a recovery in 2021, with GDP growing 3.6% that year and 3.3% in 2022 after contracting 1.8% in 2020. Growth is projected to drop slightly to 3.2% in 2023.

If its population reaches 377m by 2050 as is projected, Nigeria is poised to become the world’s third-most populous country, with a diverse and complex social architecture comprising more than 250 ethnic groups and a plethora of faiths. The peaceful handover of power at both the executive and legislative levels following elections in March 2023 buttressed Nigeria’s status as a symbol of political stability in the region. The new government faces several pressing issues, ranging from an Islamist insurgency in the north and secessionist agitation in the south-east, to an underperforming oil sector in the south-south, in addition to sluggish economic growth and a depreciating currency. This report contains interviews with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, the World Trade Organisation; Antonio Pedro, Acting Executive Secretary, the UN Economic Commission for Africa; and Omar Alieu Touray, President, ECOWAS Commission.