By Babajide Komolafe & Emma Ujah, Washington DC

The International Monetary Fund, IMF has reduced its forecast for Nigeria’s economic growth in 2025 to 3.0% citing lower price of crude oil.

The IMF announced the forecast in the April 2025 World Economic Outlook, WEO report released on the sidelines of the ongoing Spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington DC.

The latest forecast represents a 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous forecast of 3.2 per cent.

The IMF said: “For sub-Saharan Africa, growth is expected to decline slightly from 4 percent in 2024 to 3.8 percent in 2025 and recover modestly in 2026, lifting to 4.2 percent. Among the larger economies, the growth forecast in Nigeria is revised downward by 0.2 percentage point for 2025 and 0.3 percentage point for 2026, owing to lower oil prices, and that in South Africa is revised downward by 0.5 percentage point for 2025 and 0.3 percentage point for 2026, reflecting slowing momentum from a weaker-than-expected 2024 outturn, deteriorating sentiment due to heightened uncertainty, the intensification of protectionist policies, and a deeper slowdown in major economies.

“South Sudan has a downward revision of 31.5 percentage points for 2025 on account of the delay in in the resumption of oil production from a damaged pipeline.”