The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its 2025 economic growth projection for Nigeria upward, now estimating a 3.4% expansion—an increase of 0.4 percentage points from its earlier forecast of 3.0% released in April.

In a similar move, the IMF also upgraded its 2026 forecast for Nigeria to 3.2%, up by 0.5 percentage points from the previous projection of 2.7%.

These updates were published in the July 2025 edition of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO), which also reflected a slight global economic uptick. The IMF now projects global growth at 3.0% for 2025 and 3.1% for 2026, representing upward revisions of 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points, respectively, compared to the April WEO.

For the Sub-Saharan Africa region, the IMF forecasts growth of 4.0% in 2025 and 4.3% in 2026—each representing a marginal increase of 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points from earlier projections.

“Growth is expected to be relatively stable in 2025 in sub-Saharan Africa at 4.0 per cent, before picking up to 4.3 per cent in 2026,” the report noted.

Reacting to the IMF’s updated figures, Tunde Abidoye, Head of Equity Research at FBNQuest Merchant Bank, stated: “The IMF’s forecast of 3.4% aligns with our internal projections based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).”

He added, “The revision likely factors in better oil output and solid performance from the services sector. Still, this modest growth remains insufficient to address Nigeria’s deep-rooted poverty challenges.”