Nigeria’s economy grew by 1.92% in the last quarter of 2017 compared with a 1.73% contraction in the same period of the previous year. The economic recovery came as oil output rose to 1.91m million barrels per day (bpd) in the last three months of 2017, this was up from 1.76m bpd in the same ...

After years of economic mismanagement a new, if restrained, sense of optimism has gripped Angola as the actions of the country’s fledgling president start to suggest that change may be possible. Upon taking the helm of Africa’s second-largest oil producer, João Lourenço surprised many by immediately starting to dismantle the patronage networks of his predecessor, ...

In Nigeria, the 2019 elections will be the big issue over the coming year. The campaigns have started in earnest, and it is beginning to look like the duel will be between Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president, and Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president. President Buhari’s ill health made almost everyone assume he would not seek ...

Nigeria has enjoyed strong economic growth rates in the last two decades, benefiting from rising oil prices and expansion of non-oil sectors. The plunge in oil prices in 2014 induced fiscal pressures and foreign currency shortages, and spilled over to non-oil sectors, tipping the economy into recession in 2016. Medium to long term prospects look ...

How did Nigeria avoid a banking crisis in the aftermath of the 2014 crude oil price crash? In mid-August, two papers by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the effect of commodity price shocks on the financial sectors of resource-rich countries. The first found a strong relationship between commodity shocks and financial fragility leading to ...

When the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) finally reached a deal to cut oil output by 1.2m barrels per day (bpd) oil prices immediately surged. The deal, which was thrashed out in OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, last November, was lauded as the right course of action to support oil prices, which had ...

To much relief, Nigeria exited recession in the second quarter of 2017, growing by 0.6%, after five consecutive quarters of contraction from Q1 2016, with the penultimate one recording negative growth of 0.9%. This was not surprising: the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, predicted in April 2017 that “by the ...

Nigerian President Buhari As throngs of demonstrators congregated in Abuja on 15th August to protest against president Muhammadu Buhari’s protracted medical leave in London, Nigerian security forces dispersed them with live ammunition and tear gas. Popular musician and protest organiser Charles Oputa – known locally as Charly Boy – collapsed from tear gas inhalation. Pro-Buhari ...