Nigeria is officially in recession--its worst economic contraction in over three decades.

An economy is said to be in recession after two successive quarters of negative growth.

According to latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria recorded a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contraction of -3.62 percent in the third quarter of 2020 ((-6.10% in Q2 2020 & 2.28% in Q3 2019). 

This is Nigeria's second consecutive quarterly GDP decline since the recession of 2016.

The cumulative GDP for the first nine months of 2020 stood at -2.48 percent.

This is Nigeria's worst GDP contraction since 1987, a period where GDP dipped by 10.8 percent.

Economic headwinds

President Buhari has now guided Nigeria into three recessions--one as military Head of State and two as a democratically elected president.

Nigeria was always going to slide into recession in 2020, no thanks to dwindling oil revenues, the coronavirus pandemic and protectionist government policies.

The IMF and World Bank had predicted economic headwinds for Nigeria since the turn of the year.

The value of the Naira has also depreciated steadily in recent times.