The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Thursday, rolled out positive outlook of Nigeria economy in the second half of 2025, to Nigerians through statutory briefing made to the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions.
This is as the committee, chaired by Senator Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East), commended the apex bank for the positive trajectory the Nation’s economy assumed from the beginning of the year but tasked it to increase the tempo for more stabilised economy in 2026.
The CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso, in his submissions before the committee said at the domestic front, real GDP growth sustained its positive trajectory with the economy expanding by 3.98 percent in the third quarter of 2025.
This according to him, was higher than the 3.86 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024 but 0.25 percentage point lower than the preceding quarter.
“The key contributors to the broad-based growth include crop production, ICT, real estate, and financial & insurance”, he said.
He added that inflation fell for seven consecutive months to 16.05 per cent as of October 2025, from a peak of 34.6 per cent in November 2024—the lowest in three years.
Food inflation, which according to him, is the largest single component of the basket, also fell to 13.12 per cent in October, down from 21.87 per cent in August.
“This steady disinflation is restoring real purchasing power for households and businesses, and we remain fully committed to pushing inflation down to single-digit levels over the medium term,” he said.
He pointedly informed the committee that the most visible sign of renewed confidence in our economy is the transformation of the foreign exchange market, saying, “the once-substantial gap between official and parallel market rates has shrunk to under 2 per cent, down from over 60 per cent a year ago”.
“Consequently, the average exchange rate of the naira to the US dollar at the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) strengthened to N1,442.92/US$ as of November 26, 2025, compared with N1,551.08/US$ in the first half of the year.
“Foreign reserves have also rebounded strongly, reaching US$46.7 billion as of November 14, 2025—the highest level in nearly seven years, providing about 10.3 months of import cover in goods and services.
“Equally encouraging diaspora remittances have surged by 66.7% per cent from about US$200 million per month to around USS600 million per month in recent months.
“Another important outcome was the resolution of the US$7 billion of verified FX backlog, restoring credibility and confidence in the Nigerian economy”, he said.
He assured the committee that the outlook for 2026 is very positive as Nigeria today, ranks among Africa’s most advanced digital payments markets, supported by a vibrant fintech ecosystem that has produced eight of the continent’s nine unicorns.
In his opening remarks, Chairman of the Senate Committee, commended the CBN monetary policy , pointing out that his committee has noticed remarkable macroeconomic improvements since the its last interactive session with the bank in July this year.
“These positive indicators have not gone unnoticed globally. I commend the Bank and its leadership for the role played in earning the country favourable ratings from Fitch and S&P Global Ratings, reflecting improved investor sentiment, policy credibility, and macroeconomic stability”, he said .
