Nigeria’s economic team creates committee to align government forecasts

Nigeria’s Economic Management Team has approved a new committee to bring the government’s economic forecasts into line, after inconsistent assumptions contributed to budget underperformance.

The committee will harmonise projections used by fiscal and monetary authorities, including crude oil prices and production volumes, the exchange rate, inflation and non-oil revenue. It will also address differences in how key indicators are reported within government, to external parties and to the public.

The decision followed a joint budget retreat and a technical validation workshop. The team said the exercises identified divergent projections among agencies responsible for economic policy. The committee forms part of a revised mandate for the Economic Management Team, which is expected to cover macroeconomic performance reviews, stronger fiscal and monetary coordination, and monitoring of the economy.

At its meeting in Abuja, the team reviewed developments in the economy, agriculture, trade and investment, manufacturing, and preparations to host two major continental trade events. It also approved a strategy to accelerate growth in key sectors.

A Finance Ministry statement said real GDP growth reached 4.43 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2026, the strongest quarterly result since the third quarter of 2024. It said growth in dollar terms reached about 17 percent in the first half of 2026. Foreign reserves rose above $54 billion in early September, their highest level in nearly 18 years, while the naira strengthened to the N1,300s per dollar.

FTSE Russell has also reclassified Nigeria from “Unclassified” to “Frontier Market,” effective September 21, marking the country’s return to the index after about three years. The team said public debt remained below 40 percent of GDP and Moody’s had shifted Nigeria’s sovereign credit outlook from stable to positive. It put the economy’s purchasing-power-parity size above $2.2 trillion and said this pointed to potential for nominal GDP to approach $1 trillion by 2030.