World Bank: Nigeria Records 3.9% Growth Amid Ongoing Economic Reforms

Nigeria’s economy expanded by 3.9 % year on year in the first half of 2025, up from 3.5 % in the same period last year, according to the World Bank’s “From Policy to People” update. The report attributes the rebound to strong performance in services, the non-oil industry, agriculture, and modest improvements in oil output. Foreign reserves rose past US$42 billion, while public debt fell to 39.8 % of GDP, marking the first decline in over a decade. The federal deficit is projected to hold at 2.6 % of GDP.

Yet the World Bank stresses these gains are thin; many Nigerians still wrestle with skyrocketing food prices and weak safety nets. The cost of a basic food basket has increased fivefold since 2019, hitting those who spend up to 70 % of their income on food hardest. To bridge the gap, the Bank urges the removal of trade barriers, better public spending discipline, and expansion of cash transfers for the poorest.

This recovery builds on the momentum noted earlier this year in May. In a Reuters story dated May 12, the World Bank reported that Nigeria posted its fastest growth in about a decade in the fourth quarter of 2024, 4.6 %. That growth was driven by major reforms under President Bola Tinubu: removal of the petrol subsidy, cuts to electricity subsidies, and two devaluations of the naira. At that time, the Bank also warned that inflation remained dangerously high and needed continued fiscal and monetary discipline.