The Presidency has hailed the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent upward revision of Nigeria’s economic growth forecasts as a direct result of President Bola Tinubu’s bold reforms in fiscal management, energy, trade, and investment.
The declaration comes as the IMF, during the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C., raised Nigeria’s GDP growth projection to 3.9 per cent for 2025 and 4.2 per cent for 2026.
The figure marks a 0.5 percentage point increase from its previous estimate of 3.4% in July 2025.
In a statement posted on Tuesday via X by the Special Adviser to the President on Public Communications and Media, Daniel Bwala, said the improved outlook was attributed to the competence and foresight of Tinubu’s economic team.
“I must emphasise that these projections are not coincidental; they are the result of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s bold reforms in fiscal management, energy, trade, and investment, backed by the competence and foresight of his economic team.
“Just last week, the World Bank also upgraded Nigeria’s growth outlook to 4.2% in 2025 and 4.4% by 2027, citing renewed investor confidence and improved macroeconomic stability,” Bwala said.
The aide also took a political swipe at the opposition, noting that even their governors are defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress out of conviction, overwhelmed by the President’s progress.
He said, “I must commiserate with our friends on the other side. Their noise has been drowned by the President’s performance, the kind of silent but solid progress that even their own Governors can no longer ignore.
“One after another, they are crossing over to the APC, not out of compulsion but conviction, because they can see where Nigeria’s leadership, direction, and destiny truly reside.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has turned critics into admirers and doubters into believers, a proof that results remain the loudest campaign.”
In its 2025 World Economic Outlook titled “Global Economy in Flux”, the IMF projected that Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by 3.9 per cent in 2025, slightly lower than the 4.1 per cent recorded in 2024, but expected to accelerate to 4.2 per cent in 2026.
The IMF attributed Nigeria’s growth resilience to higher oil production, a more supportive fiscal stance, and improving investor sentiment. The report noted that reforms in the energy and financial sectors have begun to attract renewed capital inflows, while exchange rate adjustments have improved transparency in the foreign exchange market.
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The Fund also observed that Nigeria’s economy is less exposed to the global tariff wars triggered by new U.S. trade measures, which have weakened growth prospects in many advanced economies.
Despite the growth optimism, IMF forecasts that Nigeria’s average consumer prices will decline from 31.4 per cent in 2024 to 23.0 per cent in 2025, and further to 22.0 per cent in 2026.
End-of-period inflation is projected at 21 per cent in 2025 and 18 per cent in 2026, reflecting slow disinflation amid persistent food and energy price pressures.
According to the Fund, Nigeria’s current account surplus is expected to narrow from 6.8 per cent of GDP in 2024 to 5.7 per cent in 2025, and further to 3.6 per cent in 2026, as higher imports offset oil export gains.