The Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives, Bismarck Rewane, has said that Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2022 would be at 3.4 per cent being driven by the Information and Communication Technology and finance sectors of the economy. Rewane made the forecast at the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC)'s January Breakfast Meeting with the theme: "2022 Economic Outlook" in Lagos. He based the projection on the success and high level of productivity in key sectors such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and financial services.
He added that urgent policy actions were required in four areas: reducing inflation, catalysing private investments, addressing fiscal pressure and eliminating fuel subsidy. Rewane stressed: "Nigeria would be richer and better off in 2022 and key sectors to drive the expected growth are ICT and the financials because other sectors use it to drive productivity. "However, whilst they push productivity, they also lead to the displacement of jobs. There has been a 90 per cent surge in electronic payment, e-commerce, digitalisation and technology.2022 would also see sustained inflation as basic products such as medications, food have increased by over 100 per cent while real GDP growth would be sublime." However, he projected that the country's inflation rate was expected to remain structurally high with a full-year average of 13.3 per cent.
The economist explained that the development would be driven by cost-push factors such as fuel subsidy removal, electricity tariff and taxation. He said that the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate would be revised upwards to 2.8 per cent from its current 2.1 per cent premised on improvements in the services and manufacturing sector. Rewane said that besides the 3.4 per cent economic growth forecast that Nigeria's gross external reserves would decline towards $39 billion as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased foreign exchange supply and allowed Naira convergence.
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