22nd November, 2020
By Taiwo Okanlawon
The United Kingdom Trade Envoy to Nigeria, Helen Grant has ranked the country’s economy as the fastest growing in Africa.
Grant stated this at the Nigerian Diaspora Investment Summit (NDIS) organised by the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM).
The rating is coming after the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS has confirmed that Nigeria’s economy has slipped into another recession, the second time since 2016.
According to the ambassador, the UK government was ready to enhance trade relations with Africa’s most populous nation, stressing that the country was full of investment opportunities and potentials.
“We look forward to coming to Nigeria to identify with viable businesses that the UK government could partner within generating real and long term benefits for both countries,” she said.
The World Bank had hinted that the collapse in oil prices and coronavirus could drag Nigeria into the worst recession since the 1980s.
According to NBS, the economy shrank again in the third quarter, just like it did in the second quarter.
The nation’s economy posted a second consecutive negative growth, contracting by 3.62 per cent in the third quarter.
The cumulative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first nine months of 2020, therefore, stood at -2.48 per cent.
It recorded a -6.10 per cent negative growth in the second quarter.