Nigeria’s economy stable, NEC says, urges no policy reversals ahead of 2027

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, says Nigeria’s economy has stabilised. Oyedele started this on Thursday while briefing State House correspondents after the 158th meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in Abuja. He, however, said the priority was now to transform economic stability into shared prosperity for Nigerians.

“Our real Gross Domestic Product growth rate was 3.89 per cent for Q1 of 2026, up from 3.13 per cent one year ago,” he said. Oyedele projected that Nigeria’s GDP growth rate would exceed four per cent in 2026, reflecting continued improvement in economic activity. He said inflation had also declined significantly, reaching 15.43 per cent at the end of July, compared with 24.94 per cent a year earlier.

According to Oyedele, Nigeria’s trade surplus nearly doubled from N17.7 trillion in 2025 to N34.7 trillion by the first quarter of 2026. He said public debt remained moderate at 13.7 per cent of GDP, amounting to N159.28 trillion. “Debt service as a percentage of revenue is on the decline, from nearly 100 per cent as of 2022 to less than 60 per cent as of 2025,” he said.

Oyedele said the economic progress was also reflected in improved assessments by international market rating agencies. “This is also part of the recognition by the market rating agencies,” he said. He said Fitch Ratings, Moody’s and S&P had all upgraded Nigeria’s sovereign credit rating between April 2025 and May 2026.

“The first coordinated alignment in over a decade. The minister said Nigeria also exited the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in October 2025. He added that the country exited the European Union’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing deficiency list in January 2026.

According to him, the developments would reduce costs and friction associated with cross-border capital flows into Nigeria. Oyedele also announced Nigeria’s reclassification from an unclassified market to a frontier market. “Nigeria has now been reclassified to frontier market.