>
Nigeria’s economy is projected to grow by 2.4 per cent in 2020, if the country’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is well implemented, the President of Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, has said.
He stated that “the outlook depends on the pace of implementing the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, which anchors Nigeria’s industrialisation by establishing industrial clusters and staple crop processing zones to give firms a competitive edge through access to raw materials, skilled labour, technology, and materials.
Citing a report entitled ‘2019’s African Economic Outlook’ and launched in Abidjan, Cote d’Voire, recently, Adesina said the country’s economic performance will continue to improve with Gross Domestic Product(GDP), estimated to accelerate to 2.4 per cent in 2020, away from 2.3 per cent in 2019.
He, however, warned, that the slide in oil prices from late 2018 and output cut by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pose a downside risk to Africa’s populous nation’s economic outlook.
Other factors that may hinder the country’s economic growth, according to the AfDB boss, include the delay in passage of the 2019 budget and the general elections.
According to the report, the continent’s general economic performance will continue to improve with GDP estimated to accelerate to 4.0% in 2019 and 4.1% in 2020 away from the 3.5% in 2018 and 2017 and up from 2.1% in 2016.