<\/p>\n
The growth rate increased from 3.9% during the corresponding period in 2025 and 3.5% in 2024, according to the latest World Bank Nigeria Development Update.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Services drove much of the expansion, while agriculture made a stronger contribution. The World Bank said the acceleration helped stabilise Nigeria\u2019s poverty rate for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Middle East conflict produced mixed economic effects. Higher oil prices increased export earnings and widened the current-account surplus to $12 billion, equivalent to 7.1% of gross domestic product, during the first half of 2026.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The surplus stood at $8.6 billion, or 6.7% of gross domestic product, a year earlier.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oil earnings also increased government revenue, although forward sales and oil-backed financing arrangements limited the gains.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Foreign-exchange reserves exceeded $54 billion in September, supported largely by foreign portfolio investment. Reforms also improved the functioning of the foreign-exchange market.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, higher fuel and food prices slowed progress in reducing inflation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Headline inflation declined from 27.6% in January 2025 to 15.2% in December 2025, supported by tight monetary policy and reduced exchange-rate volatility. Inflation nevertheless remains elevated and continues to weaken household purchasing power.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The report found that gross federation revenue increased by 69% in real terms between 2023 and 2025, largely because of exchange-rate reforms, petrol-subsidy removal and stronger revenue administration.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
State revenue increased by about 93% in real terms, while expenditure rose by 92%.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Capital spending\u2019s share of total state expenditure increased from 46% to 61%, led by transport, housing and agriculture.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Social spending rose more slowly. Education\u2019s share declined from 14.9% in 2021 to 12.1% in 2025, while healthcare remained at about 7%. Social protection increased from 1.4% to 4.4%. \u201cThe bold macroeconomic reforms have substantially increased fiscal revenues at the state level, providing a unique opportunity to improve infrastructure, education, healthcare and water services,\u201d World Bank Country Director for Nigeria Mathew Verghis said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s economy is projected to grow by an average of 4.4% between 2026 and 2028, while inflation could decline to about 12% by 2028.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–WorldBank\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37383,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-47601","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Nigeria\u2019s economy grew by 4.2% in the first half of 2026 as higher oil prices strengthened exports, public revenue and foreign-exchange reserves.","published_date":"","news_description":"Nigeria\u2019s economy grew by 4.2% in the first half of 2026 as higher oil prices strengthened exports, public revenue and foreign-exchange reserves.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47602,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47601\/revisions\/47602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}