Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria's Finance Minister, has said that the country may go into recession due to the slowing down of economic activities as shown in an assessment by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics.
She made the prediction while speaking with journalists after the National Economic Council meeting on Thursday.
She stated, “The National Bureau of Statistics has made an assessment. So, it is the NBS assessment that Nigeria will go into a recession measuring at an average of -4.4 per cent.
“However, with the work that the Economic Accessibility Committee is doing bringing stimulus packages, we believe that we can reduce the impact of that recession.
“And if we applied all that have been proposed and we're able to implement it we may end up with a recession that is -0.4 per cent. In any case, we will go into recession however, what we're trying to do is to make sure that it is shallow so that we will quickly come out of it come 2021."
Ahmed added that this will be worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic which has put a strain on all facets of life in the country.
She stated, “This is a very difficult time because the challenges we've now are double. There is health challenge, there is an economic challenge. Even as we're addressing the current health challenge, we still have to look at how we can support the economy so that the economy doesn't fall into a depression.
“We've to feed the people and you can only feed the people if people go out and farm. We're a very large population, we don’t want to take the risk and we don’t have enough fund to cushion the effect.”