Nigeria’s Economy, Others Predicted to Stay on Recovery Path

Solomon Elusoji with agency report

Sub-Saharan Africa will stay on its recovery path next year provided heavyweight economies punch better, a Reuters poll found.

But it stated that the continent would still grow below potential for a part of the world with a growing population. 

A poll of 15 analysts and economists by Reuters, showed that Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, would grow 2.6 per cent next year and Kenya would grow 5.8 per cent.

In both cases this would be 0.2 percentage points slower than thought in April. 

“Growth should gain slightly more traction next year, supported by a tendency towards looser monetary policy which will support consumption,” the chief economist for North and West African countries at NKC African Economics, Cobus De Hart said.

Nigerian economic growth accelerated but Kenya’s slowed in the first quarter of the year compared to the same time last year. 

However, even if Ghana’s growth slows as expected to 6.1 per cent in 2020, from 6.5 per cent this year, next year’s performance would still be faster than the six per cent predicted in the last survey. 

Interest rates – in Ghana at 16 per cent, Nigeria at 13.5 per cent and Kenya at nine per cent – were expected to be left unchanged this week, even as they anticipated that the Central Bank of Nigeria would probably ease in September and the other two next year. 

Other major global central banks look set to ease policy soon, the report stated.

Economists largely agreed Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth – which the International Monetary Fund had predicted in April would grow at 3.5 per cent this year – would stay on the recovery path next year. 

South Africa’s Reserve Bank joined other emerging market banks in cutting interest rates last Thursday and De Hart said South Africa would perform slightly better and act as less of a drag on regional growth. 

He included Angola, the third biggest economy in Africa when excluding northern countries such as Egypt and Algeria, as another heavyweight if Nigeria disappoints. 

South Africa – where growth is expected to accelerate to 1.4 per cent next year, from 0.7 per cent in 2019 – has been, alongside Nigeria, a drag on the continent as combined they make up about 50 per cent of Africa’s economy. 

“West Africa is picking up pace nicely, not so much Nigeria though where the rebound is now again looking more fragile. East African growth is seen slowing slightly but will remain very robust from a regional perspective,” said De Hart. 

Zambia has also not been performing well due to a huge debt problem that has weighed on growth prospects. Zambia is expected to grow 3.3 per cent next year, 0.3 percentage points higher than this year but slower than the almost four per cent it grew last year. 

African leaders recently launched a continental free-trade zone after Nigeria finally signed up. If successful, it would unite 1.3 billion people and create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc, ushering in a new era of development. 

But infrastructure bottlenecks have often frustrated efforts to develop an African manufacturing base similar to the Asian tigers. 

“The meaningful impact would take at least 10 years of deliberate implementation,” said Rafiq Raji, chief economist at Macroafricaintel in Lagos. 

There would need to be a greater political will to make the trade pact work and avoid past failures, analysts said. 

“Hurdles remain, with burgeoning youth populations, high unemployment, shrinking global value chains, and increasing deglobalisation. African governments have little choice but to make the AfCTA work,” Raji said.

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