The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, has projected that the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product, GDP, would witness a growth of 6.9 per cent in the current fiscal year.
Adam EiHiraikia, UNECA chief forecaster, said Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso are among nations that would contribute to the continent’s GDP growth of 5 per cent by the end of 2014.
EiHiraikia explained that West Africa would continue to attract investments in the oil and minerals sector, a key source of growth in the sub-region, especially in the six countries already mentioned.
UNECA added that the GDP growth would be supported by improvement in global economic and regional business environment. “High commodity prices and easing infrastructure constraints, as well as increasing trade and investments from emerging economies, would help in this direction. Factors like medium-term growth prospects, increasing domestic demand from emerging class of new consumers associated with urbanisation and rising incomes would be responsible for the expected growth,” EiHiraikia disclosed.
The agency report also revealed that inflation across Africa would decline slightly from the average of 8 per cent in 2013 to 7.8 per cent in the current fiscal year. It added that the fiscal deficit would decline from 1.8 per cent of GDP in 2013 to 1.7 per cent in the current year.
However, UNECA urged the Nigerian government to focus on providing infrastructure and efforts to modernise the country’s Small and Medium scale Enterprises, SMEs, for faster growth among the low-income earners.
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