The United Nations once again has expressed worry about continued economic growth in Nigeria and other African countries without its reflection on the standard and way of life of ordinary citizens as the escalating levels of poverty has become alarming. In the recently released annual World Economic Outlook, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), an agency of the United Nations predicted a 6.9 per cent GDP growth for Nigeria and some West African countries. In the document released in Addis Ababa, Niger, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Burkina Faso are the other countries within the group among the economies.
The reports, presented by the ECA’s Chief Forecaster, Adam EiHiraikia projected that Africa’s GDP would grow by 4.7 per cent in 2014 and that there would be a growth of five per cent in 2015.
It added: “West Africa will continue to attract investment in the oil and minerals sector, a key source of growth in the sub-region, especially in countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Burkina Faso.’’
The UN agency also said the GDP growth would, at that, be supported by improvement in global economic and regional business environment. It also said high commodity prices and easing infrastructure constraints, as well as increasing trade and investments from emerging economies, would help in this direction.
Factors such as medium-term growth prospects, increasing domestic demand from the emerging class of new consumers, urbanisation and rising income would be responsible for the expected growth. The report however stated that inflation across Africa would decline slightly from the average eight per cent in 2013 to 7.8 per cent this year. Fiscal deficit would also decline from 1.8 per cent of GDP in 2013 to 1.7 per cent in 2014.
