Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) is upbeat about the continuous drop in the nation’s economic growth rate, advising that government should implement urgent Measures to Arrest the trend.
Idea. J. C Udeagbala, the National President of NACCIMA who gave the advice at the 2nd quarterly briefing on the state of the economy held on Thursday in Lagos, stated that though Nigeria economy bounced back from COVID-19 pandemic in the fourth quarter of 2020 to reach peak growth of 5.01 per cent up to mid 2021, the continuous drop in economic growth rate is worrisome.
“According to data on National Output from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Nigerian economy grew by 3.98 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, a drop from 4.03 percent in the third quarter, which dropped from 5.01 percent in the second quarter of 2021. We emphasize this slight but continuous drop in growth rate even as we acknowledge that the Nigerian economy bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic in the fourth quarter of the year 2020 to reach the peak growth rate for the period, of 5.01 percent by mid-2021.
“This declining trend is most concerning to us, as we consider that statistics on GDP is three or four months behind the present day, therefore, we estimate that the growth rate of National Output for the first three months of 2022 has decreased further considering the state of conflict in Europe which has had a negative impact on energy and food prices. It is the position of our Association that there is a very urgent need for policy implementation to avert a third recession of this decade by the end of 2022, even as the World Bank projects that the Nigerian economy will grow by 4.1 percent this year,” Udeagbala stressed.
On the ravaging inflationary trend, NACCIMA Boss disclosed that since last January, Inflation has grown from 15.63 percent as at December, 2021 to 15.92 percent as at March 2022 while headline inflation continues to be pushed by rising food prices.
“It is our hope that food security policies of the Federal Government, its ministries and agencies will prevent a return to inflation rates as high as 18.17 percent recorded as at March 2021,” he stressed.
