APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
World Bank’s prediction that Nigerian Gross Domestic Product will grow by 3.7 per cent in 2025 is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that the World Bank has predicted that Nigerian Gross Domestic Product will grow by 3.7 per cent in 2025.
The World Bank in its latest report titled “Global Economic Prospect: Subdued Growth, Multiple Challenges”, projected that the African largest economy will improve by 3.3 per cent up from a projected 2.9 per cent for 2023.
The report stated, “Growth in Nigeria is projected at 3.3 per cent this year and 3.7 percent in 2025—up 0.3 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively, since June—as macro-fiscal reforms gradually bear fruit.
“The baseline forecast implies that per capita income will reach its pre-pandemic level only in 2025.”
The Washington-based bank attributed the momentum to the gradual realisation of the current macro-fiscal reforms.
Since the assumption of office by President Bola Tinubu, he has initiated some reforms, which include the removal of fuel subsidies and foreign exchange rate harmonisation, with a focus on infrastructure development, manufacturing, and technology.
The multilateral bank said that the country’s economic growth will be driven by agriculture, construction, services, and trade.
The newspaper says that Nigeria’s national power grid collapsed 46 times from 2017 to 2023, a report by the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
According to the report, Nigerians endured more nationwide blackouts in 2023, especially on September 14 when the grid collapsed due to a fire on a major transmission line.
The IEA said Nigeria had grappled with recurrent power failures, totalling 46 grid collapses between 2017 and 2023.
It was said that Nigeria’s grid continued to face issues due to aged infrastructure and vandalism.
Deterioration of power infrastructure, it was learnt, increased dependency on backup generators for 40 per cent of electricity consumption in Nigeria.
“Although the country has a total installed capacity of about 13 GW, average available capacity remained around 4.5 GW in 2023 due to a combination of factors such as deteriorating units, poor maintenance and liquidity constraints.
“Unreliable power supply due to limited grid infrastructure, underinvestment and ineffective regulatory frameworks have resulted in an estimated 40 per cent of all the electricity consumed in the country being produced from backup generators,” IEA declared.
It stated that natural gas accounted for around 75 per cent of electricity generated on the main grid in 2023 and would continue to play an important role in energy supply and grid stabilisation for Nigeria’s power sector until 2030, and decline by 2050, according to the country’s Energy Transition Plan.
The Guardian
With possible increase in the levels of work, investments and policies done, Africa’s fintech market is expected to see huge growth in another six years, taking it to $65 billion.
Precisely by 2030, Africa’ fintech revenue is projected to see a compound yearly growth rate (CAGR) of 32 per cent.
Then, the African fintech market will be worth around $65 billion, according to a recent report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and QED Investors.
The report found that South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt lead the fintech race in Africa. This is partly due to a lack of legacy infrastructure holding these countries back from exploring new financial ecosystems to serve under- banked and unbanked citizens.
Less than 500 million people in Africa are unbanked, whereas just over 410 million are underbanked.
Caio Anteghini, partner at BCG Johannesburg, said: “Fintech could be the vehicle to solve the access issue, with smartphones presenting major opportunities in payments and lending for regional champions with full-stack attacker models.”
“Globally and in Africa, the fintech journey is still in its early stages and will continue to revolutionise the financial services industry as we know it,” he added.
BCG explained that Africa is currently winning the growth race for fintech, with a predicted 13 times growth to be achieved by 2030. The continent is followed by Latin America, with a 12.5 times growth rate.
Asia-Pacific is expected to grow by 8.5 times and Europe by 5.5 times. By 2030, North America is expected to grow by four times.
However, these are growth rates, not overall revenue value. While Africa’s fintech market is expected to be worth $65 billion by 2030, this is the smallest value of all.
On why Africa is in a good position for fintech market growth, the report noted that globally, financial services are one of the most profitable sectors, but it struggles with innovation and customer satisfaction.
The Nation newspaper says that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso said yesterday that the Naira was seriously undervalued.
According to him, the apex bank is putting all that is necessary into place to reverse the trend and make naira attain its real value.
He said: “We believe that the naira is currently undervalued and coupled with coordinated measures on the fiscal side, we will expedite genuine price discovery in the near time.”
Cardoso spoke at the unveiling of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) 2024 Macroeconomic Outlook Report in Lagos yesterday.
Analysing the fuel situation, the CBN governor explained that pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) will stabilise or drop this year when public and private-owned refineries begin operation.
The drop, he said, would have far-reaching implications on the various sectors of the economy.
He also highlighted measures by the CBN to strengthen the Naira and crash the inflation rate from 28.92 to 21.4 per cent.
The unification of exchange rates and floating of the naira by President Bola Tinubu at the inception of his administration are part of the bold moves to reform the economy.
However, this has led to a big devaluation in naira exchange to the dollar.
GIK/APA
Nigeria: Press zooms in on W’Bank projection of 3.7% growth for Nigerian economy, others
