The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has upgraded Nigeria’s economic growth projection with a 3.9 per cent expansion in 2025 and 4.2 per cent in 2026 for Africa’s largest economy.
The Fund also projected that the Nigerian economy would grow by 4.2 per cent in 2026, an improvement from the 3.2 per cent it predicted in July.
The revised figures were announced on Tuesday during the launch of the World Economic Outlook, WEO, 2025 at the ongoing World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C.
The Fund’s updated projection places Nigeria ahead of South Africa but slightly below the broader Sub-Saharan African regional average.
“Whereas growth in Nigeria is revised upward on account of supportive domestic factors, including higher oil production, improved investor confidence, and a supportive fiscal stance in 2026, and given its limited exposure to higher US tariffs, many other economies see significant downward revisions because of the changing international trade and official aid landscape,” the IMF stated.
“This is an improvement relative to the July WEO Update—but cumulatively 0.2 percentage points below forecasts made before the policy shifts in the October 2024 WEO, with the slowdown reflecting headwinds from uncertainty and protectionism, even though the tariff shock is smaller than originally announced.”
In its July 2025 update, the IMF had projected Nigeria’s growth at 3.4 per cent, but the latest report reflects a 0.5 percentage point increase, signalling renewed confidence in the country’s reform-driven economic recovery.
DAILY POST reported that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, led the Nigerian delegation to the IMF-World Bank meetings, as the Presidency confirmed that the country’s minister of finance, Wale Edun, is ill.
